home
for her. He was worldly, or, at least, a man of the world. He would
be anxious to make the most of his income, and his life would be one
long struggle, not perhaps for money, but for those things which
money only can give. There are men to whom eight hundred a year is
great wealth, and houses to which it brings all the comforts that
life requires. But Crosbie was not such a man, nor would his house be
such a house. Mrs Dale hoped that Lily would be happy with him, and
satisfied with his modes of life, and she strove to believe that such
would be the case; but as regarded herself she was forced to confess
that in such a marriage her child would be much divided from her.
That pleasant abode to which she had long looked forward that she
might have a welcome there in coming years should be among fields
and trees, not in some narrow London street. Lily must now become a
city lady; but Bell would still be left to her, and it might still
be hoped that Bell would find for herself some country home.

Since the day on which Lily had first told her mother of her
engagement, Mrs Dale had found herself talking much more fully and
more frequently with Bell than with her younger daughter. As long as
Crosbie was at Allington this was natural enough. He and Lily were of
course together, while Bell remained with her mother. But the same
state of things continued even after Crosbie was gone. It was not
that there was any coolness or want of affection between the mother
and daughter, but that Lily's heart was full of her lover, and that
Mrs Dale, though she had given her cordial consent to the marriage,
felt that she had but few points of sympathy with her future
son-in-law. She had never said, even to herself, that she disliked
him; nay, she had sometimes declared to herself that she was fond of
him. But, in truth, he was not a man after her own heart. He was not
one who could ever be to her as her own son and her own child.

But she and Bell would pass hours together talking of Lily's
prospects. "It seems strange to me," said Mrs Dale, "that she of all
girls should have been fancied by such a man as Mr Crosbie, or that
she should have liked him. I cannot imagine Lily living in London."

"If he is good and affectionate to her she will be happy wherever he
is," said Bell.

"I hope so;--I'm sure I hope so. But it seems as though she will be
so far separated from us. It is not the distance, but the manner of
life which makes the s