and know what it means. And then would you throw away from you
in some childish phantasy all that I have been struggling to win for
you during my whole life? Have you ever thought of what my life has
been, Anna?"

"Yes, mamma."

"Would you have the heart to disappoint me, now that the victory is
won;--now that it may be made our own by your help? And what is it
that I am asking you to do? If this man were bad,--if he were such a
one as your father, if he were drunken, cruel, ill-conditioned, or
even heavy, foolish, or deformed; had you been told stories to set
you against him, as that he had been false with other women, I could
understand it. In that case we would at any rate find out the truth
before we went on. But of this man we hear that he is good, and
pleasant; an excellent young man, who has endeared himself to all who
know him. Such a one that all the girls of his own standing in the
world would give their eyes to win him."

"Let some girl win him then who cares for him."

"But he wishes to win you, dearest."

"Not because he loves me. How can he love me when he never saw me?
How can I love him when I never saw him?"

"He wishes to win you because he has heard what you are, and because
he knows that by doing so he can set things right which for many
years have been wrong."

"It is because he would get all this money."

"You would both get it. He desires nothing unfair. Whatever he
takes from you, so much he will give. And it is not only for this
generation. Is it nothing to you that the chiefs of your own family
who shall come after you shall be able to hold their heads up among
other British peers? Would you not wish that your own son should come
to be Earl Lovel, with wealth sufficient to support the dignity?"

"I don't think it would make him happy, mamma."

"There is something more in this, Anna, than I can understand. You
used not to be so. When we talked of these things in past years you
used not to be indifferent."

"I was not asked then to--to--marry a man I did not care for."

"There is something else, Anna."

"No, mamma."

"If there be nothing else you will learn to care for him. You will
see him to-morrow, and will be left alone with him. I will sit with
you for a time, and then I will leave you. All that I ask of you is
to receive him to-morrow without any prejudice against him. You must
remember how much depends on you, and that you are not as other girls
are." After that Lady Ann