principle.
She had asked herself many times whether her present life was so
happy as to make her think that a permanent continuance in it would
suffice for her desires, and she had always replied to herself that
she would fain change to some other life if it were possible. She
had also questioned herself as to her rank, of which she was quite
sufficiently proud, and had told herself that she could not degrade
herself in the world without a heavy pang. But she had at last taught
herself to believe that she had more to gain by becoming the wife of
such a man as Crosbie than by remaining as an unmarried daughter of
her father's house. There was much in her sister Amelia's position
which she did not envy, but there was less to envy in that of her
sister Rosina. The Gazebee house in St. John's Wood Road was not
so magnificent as Courcy Castle; but then it was less dull, less
embittered by torment, and was moreover her sister's own.

"Very many do marry commoners," she had said to Margaretta.

"Oh, yes, of course. It makes a difference, you know, when a man has
a fortune."

Of course it did make a difference. Crosbie had no fortune, was not
even so rich as Mr Gazebee, could keep no carriage, and would have
no country house. But then he was a man of fashion, was more thought
of in the world than Mr Gazebee, might probably rise in his own
profession,--and was at any rate thoroughly presentable. She would
have preferred a gentleman with L5,000 a year; but then as no
gentleman with L5,000 a year came that way, would she not be happier
with Mr Crosbie than she would be with no husband at all? She was not
very much in love with Mr Crosbie, but she thought that she could
live with him comfortably, and that on the whole it would be a good
thing to be married.

And she made certain resolves as to the manner in which she would do
her duty by her husband. Her sister Amelia was paramount in her own
house, ruling indeed with a moderate, endurable dominion, and ruling
much to her husband's advantage. Alexandrina feared that she would
not be allowed to rule, but she could at any rate try; She would do
all in her power to make him comfortable, and would be specially
careful not to irritate him by any insistence on her own higher rank.
She would be very meek in this respect; and if children should come
she would be as painstaking about them as though her own father had
been merely a clergyman or a lawyer. She thought also much about poor