ed so hard all my life that when I was
young I had no time to think of love. And, as I have gone on, my mind
has been so fully employed, that I have hardly realized the want which
nevertheless I have felt. And so it has been with me till I fancied,
not that I was too old for love, but that others would think me so.
Then I met you. As I said at first, perhaps with scant gallantry, you
also are not as young as you once were. But you keep the beauty of
your youth, and the energy, and something of the freshness of a young
heart. And I have come to love you. I speak with absolute frankness,
risking your anger. I have doubted much before I resolved upon this.
It is so hard to know the nature of another person. But I think I
understand yours;--and if you can confide your happiness with me, I am
prepared to entrust mine to your keeping.' Poor Mr Broune! Though
endowed with gifts peculiarly adapted for the editing of a daily
newspaper, he could have had but little capacity for reading a woman's
character when he talked of the freshness of Lady Carbury's young
mind! And he must have surely been much blinded by love, before
convincing himself that he could trust his happiness to such keeping.

'You do me infinite honour. You pay me a great compliment,' ejaculated
Lady Carbury.

'Well?'

'How am I to answer you at a moment? I expected nothing of this. As
God is to be my judge it has come upon me like a dream. I look upon
your position as almost the highest in England,--on your prosperity as
the uttermost that can be achieved.'

'That prosperity, such as it is, I desire most anxiously to share with
you.'

'You tell me so;--but I can hardly yet believe it. And then how am I to
know my own feelings so suddenly? Marriage as I have found it, Mr
Broune, has not been happy. I have suffered much. I have been wounded
in every joint, hurt in every nerve,--tortured till I could hardly
endure my punishment. At last I got my liberty, and to that I have
looked for happiness.'

'Has it made you happy?'

'It has made me less wretched. And there is so much to be considered!
I have a son and a daughter, Mr Broune.'

'Your daughter I can love as my own. I think I prove my devotion to
you when I say that I am willing for your sake to encounter the
troubles which may attend your son's future career.'

'Mr Broune, I love him better,--always shall love him better,--than
anything in the world.' This was calculated to damp the lover's
ardour,