could
perceive that there was something of the master in his tone as he
spoke.

"I am only telling you what Amelia said," she replied.

Had Lily been his bride, and had he spoken to her of their future
life and mutual duties, how she would have kindled to the theme!
She would have knelt at his feet on the floor of the carriage,
and, looking up into his face, would have promised him to do her
best,--her best,--her very best. And with what an eagerness of inward
resolution would she have determined to keep her promise. He thought
of all this now, but he knew that he ought not to think of it. Then,
for some quarter of an hour, he did take out his newspaper, and she,
when she saw him do so, did take out her novel.

He took out his newspaper, but he could not fix his mind upon the
politics of the day. Had he not made a terrible mistake? Of what
use to him in life would be that thing of a woman that sat opposite
to him? Had not a great punishment come upon him, and had he not
deserved the punishment? In truth, a great punishment had come
upon him. It was not only that he had married a woman incapable of
understanding the higher duties of married life, but that he himself
would have been capable of appreciating the value of a woman who
did understand them. He would have been happy with Lily Dale; and
therefore we may surmise that his unhappiness with Lady Alexandrina
would be the greater. There are men who, in marrying such as Lady
Alexandrina de Courcy, would get the article best suited to them,
as Mortimer Gazebee had done in marrying her sister. Miss Griselda
Grantly, who had become Lady Dumbello, though somewhat colder and
somewhat cleverer than Lady Alexandrina, had been of the same sort.
But in marrying her, Lord Dumbello had got the article best suited
to him;--if only the ill-natured world would allow him to keep
the article. It was in this that Crosbie's failure had been so
grievous,--that he had seen and approved the better course, but had
chosen for himself to walk in that which was worse. During that week
at Courcy Castle,--the week which he passed there immediately after
his second visit to Allington,--he had deliberately made up his mind
that he was more fit for the bad course than for the good one. The
course was now before him, and he had no choice but to walk in it.

It was very cold when they got to Folkestone, and Lady Alexandrina
shivered as she stepped into the private-looking carriage which had
been