urnitured bedrooms assist one's comfort in this life;
and heaps of manure, though they are not brilliant in romance, are
very efficacious in farming. Mrs Greenow by no means despised these
things; and as for the owner of them, though she saw that there was
much amiss in his character, she thought that his little foibles were
of such a nature that she, as his wife, or any other woman of spirit,
might be able to repress them, if not to cure them. But she had
already married for money once, as she told herself very plainly on
this occasion, and she thought that she might now venture on a little
love. Her marriage for money had been altogether successful. The
nursing of old Greenow had not been very disagreeable to her, nor had
it taken longer than she had anticipated. She had now got all the
reward that she had ever promised herself, and she really did feel
grateful to his memory. I almost think that among those plentiful
tears some few drops belonged to sincerity. She was essentially a
happy-tempered woman, blessed with a good digestion, who looked back
upon her past life with contentment, and forward to her future life
with confidence. She would not be greedy, she said to herself. She
did not want more money, and therefore she would have none of Mr
Cheesacre. So far she resolved,--resolving also that, if possible,
the mahogany-furnitured bedrooms should be kept in the family, and
made over to her niece, Kate Vavasor.

But should she marry for love; and if so, should Captain Bellfield
be the man? Strange to say, his poverty and his scampishness and his
lies almost recommended him to her. At any rate, it was not of those
things that she was afraid. She had a woman's true belief in her own
power, and thought that she could cure them,--as far as they needed
cure. As for his stories about Inkerman, and his little debts, she
cared nothing about that. She also had her Inkermans, and was quite
aware that she made as good use of them as the Captain did of his.
And as for the debts,--what was a man to do who hadn't got any money?
She also had owed for her gloves and corsets in the ante-Greenow days
of her adventures. But there was this danger,--that there might be
more behind of which she had never heard. Another Mrs Bellfield was
not impossible; and what, if instead of being a real captain at
all, he should be a returned ticket-of-leave man! Such things had
happened. Her chief security was in this,--that Cheesacre had known
the