"Congratulated him?" echoed Rangely.
"Yes. Didn't you know his engagement is out?"
Rangely might have been said to take a page out of Fenton's own book, as he answered,—
"But what's the etiquette of precedence?" "Of precedence?" echoed
Arthur, in his turn.
"Yes," Rangely returned. "Which of us should congratulate the other first? Only," he added, hitting to his own delight upon a position which might save him from some awkwardness in the future, "of course my engagement can't be announced until Miss Merrivale gets home to her mother."
"Well," Arthur said, "marriage is that ceremony by which man lays aside the pleasures of life and takes up its duties. I congratulate you on your determination to do anything so virtuous."
"Sardonic, as usual," retorted Fred, laughing; and then he went to find Miss Merrivale, convinced that under the circumstances the sooner he proposed to her the better.
XXXII
HEART-BURNING HEAT OF DUTY.
Love's Labor's Lost; i.—1.
All the world feels the pathos of helplessness hurt and wounded; but only some recognize how this applies to a great and noble nature attacked by unscrupulousness. In an encounter with dishonesty, nobility of soul may be, in its effect for the moment, utter weakness. Assailed by deceit or treachery the great heart has often no resource but endurance; and while endurance may save, it cannot defend.