"Perhaps not; but there are other women in a position of less grandeur. I am going to change mine."
"No!"
"I thought you would be surprised because it would look as though I were about to abandon my great doctrine. It is not so. My opinions on that great subject are not in the least changed. But of course there must be some women whom the exigencies of the world will require to marry."
"A good many, first and last."
"About the good many I do not at this moment concern myself. My duty is clearly before me and I mean to perform it. I have been asked to ally myself—;" then there was a pause, and the speaker discovered when it was too late that she was verging on the ridiculous in declaring her purpose of forming an alliance;—"that is to say, I am going to marry Sir Francis Geraldine."
"Sir Francis Geraldine!"
"Do you see any just cause or impediment?"
"None in the least. And yet how am I to answer such a question? I saw cause or impediment why I should not marry him."
"You both saw it, I suppose?" said Miss Altifiorla, with an air of grandeur. "You both supposed that you were not made for each other, and wisely determined to give up the idea. You did not remain single, and I suppose we need not either."
"Certainly not for my sake."