nd a check, but--'

Phoebe wondered that her friend paused and looked so sad.

'Oh! Phoebe,' said Honora, after a moment's silence, speaking fervently,
'if you can in any way do so, warn your brother against making an idol!
Let nothing come between him and the direct devotion of will and
affection to the Higher Service. If he decide on the one or the other,
let it be from duty, not with respect to anything else. I do not suppose
it is of any use to warn him,' she added, with the tears in her eyes.
'Every one sets the whole soul upon some one object, not the right, and
then comes the shipwreck.'

'Dear Robin!' said Phoebe. 'He is so good! I am sure he always thinks
first of what is right. But I think I see what you mean. If he
undertake the business, it should be as a matter of obedience to papa,
not to keep Lucy in the great world. And, indeed, I do not think my
father does care much, only he would like the additional capital; and
Robert is so much more steady than Mervyn, that he would be more useful.
Perhaps it would make him more important at home; no one there has any
interest in common with him; and I think that moves him a little; but,
after all, those do not seem reasons for not giving himself to God's
service,' she finished, reverently and considerately.

'No, indeed!' cried Miss Charlecote.

'Then you think he ought not to change his mind?'

'You have thought so all along,' smiled Honor.

'I did not like it,' said Phoebe, 'but I did not know if I were right. I
did tell him that I really believed Lucy would think the more highly of
him if he settled for himself without reference to her.'

'You did! You were a capital little adviser, Phoebe! A woman worthy to
be loved at all had always rather be set second instead of first:--

"I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honour more."

That is the true spirit, and I am glad you judged Lucy to be capable of
it. Keep your brother up to that, and all may be well!'

'I believe Robert knows it all the time,' said Phoebe. 'He always is
right at the bottom; but his feelings get so much tried that he does not
know how to bear it! I hope Lucy will be kind to him if they meet in
London, for he has been so much harassed that he wants some comfort from
her. If she would only be in earnest!'

'Does he go to London, at all events?'

'He has promised to attend to the office in Great Whittington-street for
a month, by way of experiment.