city. Is Eulalie much attached to the
man she is to marry?"

"Women marry with many forms of love; Eulalie's will do exceedingly well
for Mr. Thorpe. He is a very worthy young clergyman, who takes a wife as
a matter of necessity. As for love--have you noticed, Agatha, how many
women one sees, wives and mothers, who live creditably through a long
life, and go down to their graves without ever having known the real
meaning of the word?"

Anne was talking more than usual to-night, and Agatha liked to listen.
The subject came home to her. "Will Eulalie be one of these?"

"I think so. She may make a very good, attentive wife, but she will
never know what is real love."

"Tell me, what is that sort of love--the right love--which one ought to
bring to one's husband?"

Miss Valery looked surprised at the young girl's eager manner. "Are you
seriously asking that question? and of me, who never had a husband?"

"Oh, one likes to hear various opinions. What do you call 'loving?'"

"Almost every human being loves in a different way."

"Well, then, your way I mean." But noticing the momentary reticence
which Anne's manner showed, she added, "I mean the kind of love you have
most sympathy with in other people."

"I have sympathy in all. My neighbours will tell you hereabouts that
Anne Valery is the universal confidante, and the greatest marriage-maker
(not match-maker) in all Dorset. I don't repudiate the character. It is
pleasant to see young people loving one another."

"Still, you have not told me what _you_ call loving."

"Do you really wish to hear?" said Anne, seriously. Then speaking in a
low voice, she added: "I would have every woman marry, not merely liking
a man well enough to accept him as a husband, but loving him so wholly,
that, wedded or not, she feels she is at heart his wife and none
other's, to the end of her life. So faithful, that she can see all his
little faults (though she takes care no one else shall see them), yet
would as soon think of loving him the less for these, as of ceasing to
look up to heaven because there are a few clouds in the sky. So true,
and so fond, that she needs neither to vex him with her constancy, nor
burden him with her love, since both are self-existent, and entirely
independent of anything he gives or takes away. Thus she will marry
neither from liking, esteem, nor gratitude for his love, but from the
fulness of her own. If they never marry, as sometimes happens"--and
Anne