if affairs were as promising as I think you may erroneously
assume."

"But you must not hesitate, Endymion. We must never forget the great
object for which we two live, for which, I believe, we were born
twins--to rebuild our house; to raise it from poverty, and ignominy, and
misery and squalid shame, to the rank and position which we demand, and
which we believe we deserve. Did I hesitate when an offer of marriage
was made to me, and the most unexpected that could have occurred? True
it is, I married the best and greatest of men, but I did not know that
when I accepted his hand. I married him for your sake, I married him
for my own sake, for the sake of the house of Ferrars, which I wished
to release and raise from its pit of desolation. I married him to secure
for us both that opportunity for our qualities which they had lost, and
which I believed, if enjoyed, would render us powerful and great."

Endymion rose from his seat and kissed his sister. "So long as you
live," he said, "we shall never be ignominious."

"Yes, but I am nothing; I am not a man, I am not a Ferrars. The best of
me is that I may be a transient help to you. It is you who must do
the deed. I am wearied of hearing you described as Lady Roehampton's
brother, or Lord Roehampton's brother-in-law. I shall never be content
till you are greater than we are, and there is but one and only one
immediate way of accomplishing it, it is by this marriage--and a
marriage with whom? with an angelic being!"

"You take me somewhat by surprise, Myra. My thoughts have not been
upon this matter. I cannot fairly describe myself at this moment as a
marrying man."

"I know what you mean. You have female friendships, and I approve of
them. They are invaluable to youth, and you have been greatly favoured
in this respect. They have been a great assistance to you; beware lest
they become a hindrance. A few years of such feelings in a woman's life
are a blazoned page, and when it is turned she has many other chapters,
though they may not be as brilliant or adorned. But these few years in a
man's life may be, and in your case certainly would be, the very marrow
of his destiny. During the last five or six years, ever since our
emancipation, there has been a gradual but continuous development
in your life. All has been preparatory for a position which you have
acquired. That position may lead to anything--in your case, I will still
believe, to everything--but there must be no