.

The eldest daughter of the household had married five years before the
date at which this narrative opens, and during that period had enjoyed
the happiness of a true and enduring devotion, and the troubles
inseparable from a constant financial struggle, ending with bankruptcy,
and a retreat from a tastefully furnished villa at Surbiton to a dreary
lodging in Oxford Terrace. Poor Edith had lost much of her beauty and
light-hearted gaiety as a result of anxiety and the constant care of two
delicate children; but never in the blackest moment of her trouble had
she wished herself unwed, or been willing to change places with any
woman who had not the felicity of being John Martin's wife.

Trouble had drawn Jack and herself more closely together; she was in
arms in a passion of indignation against that world which judged a man
by the standpoint of success or failure, and lay in readiness to heave
another stone at the fallen. At nightfall she watched for his coming to
judge of the day's doings by the expression of his face, before it lit
up with the dear welcoming smile. At sight of the weary lines, strength
came to her, as though she could move mountains on his behalf. As they
sat together on the horsehair sofa, his tired head resting on her
shoulder, the strain and the burden fell from them both, and they knew
themselves millionaires of blessings.

The second daughter of the Vane household was a very different character
from her sensitive and highly-strung sister. The fairies who had
attended her christening, and bequeathed upon the infant the gifts of
industry, common sense, and propriety, forgot to bestow at the same time
that most valuable of all qualities,--the power to awaken love! Her
relatives loved Agnes--"Of course," they would have said; but when "of
course" is added in this connection, it is sadly eloquent! The poor
whom she visited were basely ungrateful for her doles, and when she
approached empty-handed, took the occasion to pay a visit to a
neighbour's back yard, leaving her to flay her knuckles on an
unresponsive door.

Agnes had many acquaintances, but no friends, and none of the young men
who frequented the house had exhibited even a passing inclination to pay
her attention.

Edith had been a belle in her day; while as for Margot, every masculine
creature gravitated towards her as needles to a magnet. Among various
proposals of marriage had been one from so solid and eligible a _parti_,
tha