‘Oh! her Finch is a manageable bird. Her life is in her own power, and she will have plenty of all that makes it agreeable. It is winning a home instead of working for it; that is the common sense view—’
‘Winning it by the vow to love, honour, and obey, when she knows she cannot?’
‘Oh, she may in the end. He is tame, and kind, and very much obliged. My dear Theodora, I could feel with you once; but one learns to see things in a different light as one lives on. After all, I have not done the thing.’
‘If you did not promote it, you justify it.’
‘May I not justify my sister to her friend?’
‘I do no such thing. I do not justify Arthur. I own that he has acted wrongly; but—No, I cannot compare the two cases. His was silly and bad enough, but it was a marriage, not a bargain.’
‘Well, perhaps one may turn out as well as the other.’
‘I am afraid so,’ sighed Theodora.
‘It has been a sad grief to you, so fond of your brother as you were.’
‘Not that I see much harm in the girl,’ continued Theodora; ‘but—’