Broune of the 'Daily Breakfast Table'
asking her to be his wife! But mixed with her other feelings there was
a tenderness which brought back some memory of her distant youth, and
almost made her weep. That a man,--such a man,--should offer to take half
her burdens, and to confer upon her half his blessings! What an idiot!
But what a god! She had looked upon the man as all intellect, alloyed
perhaps by some passionless remnants of the vices of his youth; and
now she found that he not only had a human heart in his bosom, but a
heart that she could touch. How wonderfully sweet! How infinitely
small!

It was necessary that she should answer him;--and to her it was only
natural that she should think what answer would best assist her own
views without reference to his. It did not occur to her that she could
love him; but it did occur to her that he might lift her out of her
difficulties. What a benefit it would be to her to have a father, and
such a father, for Felix! How easy would be a literary career to the
wife of the editor of the 'Morning Breakfast Table!' And then it
passed through her mind that somebody had told her that the man was
paid L3,000 a year for his work. Would not the world, or any part of
it that was desirable, come to her drawing-room if she were the wife
of Mr Broune? It all passed through her brain at once during that
minute of silence which she allowed herself after the declaration was
made to her. But other ideas and other feelings were present to her
also. Perhaps the truest aspiration of her heart had been the love of
freedom which the tyranny of her late husband had engendered. Once she
had fled from that tyranny and had been almost crushed by the censure
to which she had been subjected. Then her husband's protection and his
tyranny had been restored to her.

After that the freedom had come. It had been accompanied by many hopes
never as yet fulfilled, and embittered by many sorrows which had been
always present to her; but still the hopes were alive and the
remembrance of the tyranny was very clear to her. At last the minute
was over and she was bound to speak. 'Mr Broune,' she said, 'you have
quite taken away my breath. I never expected anything of this kind.'

And now Mr Broune's mouth was opened, and his voice was free. 'Lady
Carbury,' he said, 'I have lived a long time without marrying, and I
have sometimes thought that it would be better for me to go on the
same way to the end. I have work