And though originally it was applied by a man to a woman, and she
smiled sometimes to think how "unfeminine" some people--Selina for
instance--would consider her turning it the other way, still she did
so. She believed that, for woman as for man, that is the purest and
noblest love which is the most self-existent, most independent of
love returned; and which can say, each to the other equally on both
sides, that the whole solemn purpose of life is, under God's service,

"If not to win, to feel more worthy thee."

Such thoughts made her step firmer and her heart lighter; so that she
hardly noticed the distance they must have walked till the close
London air began to oppress her, and the smooth glaring London
pavements made her Stowbury feet ache sorely.

"Are you tired, Elizabeth? Well, we'll rest soon. There must be
lodgings near here. Only I can't quite make out--"

As Miss Hilary looked up to the name of the street the maid noticed
what a glow came into her mistress's face, pale and tired as it was.
Just then a church clock struck the quarter hour.

"That must be St. Pancras. And this--yes, this is Burton Street,
Burton Crescent."

"I'm sure Missis wouldn't like to live there;" observed Elizabeth,
eyeing uneasily the gloomy rez de-chaussee, familiar to many a
generation of struggling respectability, where, in the decadence of
the season, every second house bore the announcement "apartments
furnished."