Fortune to have
made you rich too. You should have been left to your beauty, as other
people are left to their great connections, or their talents, or their
Three per Cents; and then you are surrounded by those who love you,
May,--a very commendable thing in a world which has its share of
disagreeable people; and, lastly, to enjoy all these fair gifts, you
have got youth."

"I shall be nineteen on the fourth of next month, Lucy," said the other,
gravely; "and it was just about that very circumstance that I came to
speak to you."

Mrs. Morris knew thoroughly well what the speech portended, but she
looked all innocence and inquiry.

"You are aware, Lucy, what my coming of age brings with it?" said the
girl, half pettishly.

"That you become a great millionnaire, dearest,--a sort of female
Rothschild, with funds and stocks in every land of the earth."

"I was not speaking of money. I was alluding to the necessity of
deciding as to my own fate in life. I told you that by my father's will
I am bound to declare that I accept or reject Charles Heathcote within
six months after my coming of age."

"I do not, I confess, see anything very trying in that, May. I conclude
that you know enough of your own mind to say whether you like him or
not. You are not strangers to each other. You have been domesticated
together--"

"That 's the very difficulty," broke in May. "There has been intimacy
between us, but nothing like affection,--familiarity enough, but no
fondness."

"Perhaps that's not so bad a feature as you deem it," said the other,
dryly. "Such a tame, table-land prospect before marriage may all the
better prepare you for the dull uniformity of wedded life."

May gave a slight sigh, and was silent, while the other continued,--

"Being very rich, dearest, is, of course, a great resource, for you can,
by the mere indulgence of your daily caprices, give yourself a sort of
occupation, and a kind of interest in life."

May sighed again, and more heavily.

"I know this is not what one dreams of, my dear May," resumed she,
"and I can well imagine how reluctant you are to seek happiness in toy
terriers or diamond earrings; but remember what I told you once before
was the great lesson the world taught us, that every joy we compass
in this life is paid for dearly, in some shape or other, and that the
system is one great scheme of compensations, the only wisdom being, to
be sure you have got at last what you have paid for.