hich she fell.

And throughout that evening, and for days to come, Margaret Adair,
although petted and caressed and praised on every hand, and persuaded
into feeling that she had not only done the thing that was expected of
her, but a very worthy and noble thing, was haunted by an uneasy
consciousness, that the argument which had prevailed with her was not
the love of home or of her parents, which, indeed, might have been a
very creditable motive for her decision, but a shrinking from trouble, a
dislike to effort of any kind, and an utter distaste for obscurity and
humility. Janetta's reproachful call rang in her ears for days. She
knew that she had chosen the baser part. True, as she argued with
herself, it was right to obey one's parents, to be submissive and
straightforward, to shrink from the idea of ingratitude and rebellion;
and, if she had yielded on these grounds, she might have been somewhat
consoled for the loss of her lover by the conviction that she had done
her duty. But for some little time she was distressfully aware that she
had never considered her parents in the matter at all. She had thought
of worldly disadvantage only. She had not felt any desire to stand by
Wyvis Brand in his trouble. She had felt only repugnance and disgust;
and, having some elements of good in her, she was troubled and ashamed
by her failure; for, even if she had done right in the main, she knew
that she had done it in the wrong way.

But, of course, time changed her estimate of herself. She was so much
caressed and flattered by her family for her "exquisite dutifulness," as
they phrased it, that she ended by believing that she had behaved
beautifully. And this belief was a great support to her during the
winter that she subsequently spent with her parents in Italy.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

RETROSPECT.

For my part, I am inclined to think that Margaret was more right than
she knew. There was really no inherent fitness between her temperament
and that of Wyvis Brand; and his position in the County was one which
would have fretted her inexpressibly. She, who had been the petted
favorite of a brilliant circle in town and country, to take rank as the
wife of a ploughman's son! It would not have suited her at all; and her
discontent would have ended in making Wyvis miserable.

He was, he considered, miserable enough already. He was sore all
over--sore and injured and angry. He had been deceived in a manner which
seemed to him