tain any respect for him. He had laid bare to her all his
weakness, and for a moment she had spurned him. It was true that she had
again reconciled herself to him, struggling to save both him and her
sister from future misery--that she had even condescended to implore him
to be gracious to Florence, taking that which to her mind seemed then to
be the surest path to her object; but not the less did he feel that she
must despise him. Having promised his hand to one woman--to a woman whom
he still professed that he loved dearly--he had allowed himself to be
cheated into offering it to another. And he knew that the cheating had
been his own. It was he who had done the evil. Julia, in showing her
affection for him, had tendered her love to a man whom she believed to
be free. He had intended to walk straight. He had not allowed himself to
be enamored of the wealth possessed by this woman who had thrown herself
at his feet. But he had been so weak that he had fallen in his own
despite.

There is, I suppose, no young man possessed of average talents and
average education, who does not early in life lay out for himself some
career with more or less precision--some career which is high in its
tendencies and noble in its aspirations, and to which he is afterward
compelled to compare the circumstances of the life which he shapes for
himself. In doing this he may not attempt, perhaps, to lay down for
himself any prescribed amount of success which he will endeavor to
reach, or even the very pathway by which he will strive to be
successful; but he will tell himself what are the vices which he will
avoid, and what the virtues which he will strive to attain. Few young
men ever did this with more precision than it had been done by Harry
Clavering, and few with more self-confidence. Very early in life he had
been successful--so successful as to enable him to emancipate himself
not only from his father's absolute control, but almost also from any
interference on his father's part. It had seemed to be admitted that he
was a better man than his father, better than the other Claverings--the
jewel of the race, the Clavering to whom the family would in future
years look up, not as their actual head, but as their strongest prop and
most assured support. He had said to himself that he would be an honest,
truthful, hard-working man, not covetous after money, though conscious
that a laborer was worthy of his hire, and conscious also that the
better