there was anything to be done,' said Laura.

'It is my profession that is the bar to everything. I have sold the best
years of my life, and for what? To see my sister degrade herself by that
marriage.'

'That is the real grief,' said Laura.

'But for that, I should never have cast a look back on what I
relinquished. However, why do I talk of these things, these vain
regrets? They only occurred because my welfare does not concern myself
alone--and here's your father.'

Mr. Edmonstone returned, out of breath, in too much bustle remark his
daughter's blushes. Even when the train was moving off, he still had
his head out at the window, calling to Philip that they should expect
a visit from him as soon as ever they returned. Such cordiality gave
Philip a pang; and in bitterness of spirit he walked back to the
barracks. On the way he met Mrs. Deane who wanted to consult him about
inviting his cousin, Sir Guy to a dinner-party she intended to give next
week. 'Such an agreeable, sensible youth, and we feel we owe him some
attention, he took so much pains to make apologies about the ball.'

'I dare say he will be very happy to come.'

'We will write at once. He is a very fine young man, without a shade of
vanity or nonsense.'

'Yes; he has very pleasant, unaffected manners.'

'I am sure he will do credit to his estate. It is a very handsome
fortune, is it not?'

'It is a very large property.'

'I am glad of it; I have no doubt we shall see him one of the first men
of his time.'

These words brought into contrast in Philip's mind the difference
between Guy's position and his own. The mere possession of wealth was
winning for Guy, at an age when his merits could only be negative, that
estimation which his own tried character had scarcely achieved, placing
him not merely on a level with himself, but in a situation where
happiness and influence came unbidden. His own talents, attainments, and
equal, if not superior claims, to gentle blood, could not procure him
what seemed to lie at Guy's feet. His own ability and Laura's heart
alone were what wealth could not affect; yet when he thought how the
want of it wasted the one, and injured the hopes of the other, he
recurred to certain visions of his sister Margaret's, in days gone
by, of what he was to do as Sir Philip, lord of Redclyffe. He was
speculating on what would have happened had Guy died in his sickly
infancy, when, suddenly recollecting himself, he turned his min