vils of wealth; and to see and hear the two ladies, no one
would have thought that Julia Poynsett had married a young man for
love--Susan Lorimer an old man for independence.

Possibly with her present principles she would not have done so; but
through the vista of a long and prosperous widowhood deficiencies in
the courtship were easily forgotten; and perhaps there was the more
romance and sentiment now because she had been balked of it in her
youth. She had freely allowed her eldest daughter to enter a
sisterhood from the purest, most unselfish motives, but there was
compensation in talking of her Margaret as a Sister of Mercy.

And ere long she was anxiously inquiring Mrs. Poynsett's opinion of
Eleonora Vivian, and making confidences somewhat trying to the
mother of the young lady's ardent lover.

She was quite aware that as to fortune there could hardly be a worse
match than Miss Vivian; but she was sensible enough to see that her
son had a sufficiency, and generous enough to like the idea of
redeeming the old estate. Her husband had spent his latter years in
a vain search for a faultless property, and his wealth was waiting
for Lorimer's settling down. She had always regretted the having no
vassals rightfully her own, and had felt the disadvantages of being
Lady Bountiful only by tenant right. To save an old estate from
entirely passing out of a family, and relieve 'a noble old wreck,'
like Sir Harry, seemed to her so grand a prospect that she could not
but cast a little glamour over the manner of the shipwreck. Still,
to do her justice, her primary consideration was the blessing such a
woman as Lenore might be to her son.

She had not fathomed Lady Tyrrell. No woman could do so without
knowing her antecedents, but she understood enough to perceive that
Eleonora was not happy with her, and this she attributed to the
girl's deep nature and religious aspirations. Rockpier was an
ecclesiastical paradise to Lady Susan, and a close bond with Lenore,
to whom in London she had given all the facilities that lay in her
power for persevering in the observances that were alien to the gay
household at home. She valued this constancy exceedingly, and
enthusiastically dilated on the young lady's goodness, and
indifference to the sensation she had created. "Lorimer allows he
never saw her equal for grace and dignity."

Allows! Fancy Frank _allowing_ any perfection in his Lenore! Was
it not possible that a little