equally affectionate in his manner to both girls, and
entirely impartial in every respect that concerned the material
well-being of them. But Theodosia was always placed on a pedestal on
which there was no room at all for Harriet. Nor could the closest
intimacy with the family discover any faintest desire on her part to
share the pedestal She was content and entirely happy in enjoying the
reflected brightness of the more gifted sister.

Nor would perhaps a shrewd judge, whose estimate of men and women had
been formed by observation of average humanity, have thought that the
position which I have described as that of the younger of these two
sisters, was altogether a morally wholesome one for her. But the
shrewd judge would have been wrong. There never was a humbler, as
there never was a more loving soul, than that of the Theodosia Garrow
who became, for my perfect happiness, Theodosia Trollope. And it was
these two qualities of humbleness and lovingness that, acting like
invincible antiseptics on the moral nature, saved her from all
"spoiling,"--from any tendency of any amount of flattery and
admiration to engender selfishness or self-sufficiency. Nothing more
beautiful in the way of family affection could be seen than the tie
which united in the closest bonds of sisterly affection those two so
differently constituted sisters. Very many saw and knew what Theodosia
was as my wife. Very few indeed ever knew what she was in her own home
as a sister.

When I married Theodosia Garrow she possessed just one thousand pounds
in her own right, and little or no prospect of ever possessing any
more; while I on my side possessed nothing at all, save the prospect
of a strictly bread and cheese competency at the death of my mother,
and "the farm which I carried under my hat," as somebody calls it. The
marriage was not made with the full approbation of my father-in-law;
but entirely in accordance with the wishes of my mother, who simply,
dear soul, saw in it, what she said, that "Theo" was of all the girls
she knew, the one she should best like as a daughter-in-law. And here
again the wise folks of the world (and I among them!) would hardly
have said that the step I then took was calculated, according to all
the recognised chances and probabilities of human affairs, to lead to
a life of contentment and happiness. I suppose it ought not to have
done so! But it did! It would be monstrously inadequate to say that I
never repented it.