"Shall I go on?"

"Oh, yes! Speak freely. I am listening to your words as if they came
from the lips of my own father."

"An error in marriage is one of life's saddest errors, said Mr.
Allison.

"I believe that," was the maiden's calm remark; yet Mr. Allison saw
that her eyes grew instantly brighter, and the hue of her cheeks
warmer.

"In a _true_ marriage, there must be good moral qualities. No
pure-minded woman can love a man for an instant after she discovers
that he is impure, selfish, and evil. It matters not how high his
rank, how brilliant his intellect, how attractive his exterior
person, how perfect his accomplishments. In her inmost spirit she
will shrink from him, and feel his presence as a sphere of
suffocation. Oh! can the thought imagine a sadder lot for a
true-hearted woman! And there is no way of escape. Her own hands
have wrought the chains that bind her in a most fearful bondage."

Again Mr. Allison paused, and regarded his young companion with a
look of intense interest.

"May heaven spare you from such a lot!" he said, in a low, subdued
voice.

Fanny made no reply. She sat with her eyes resting on the ground,
her lips slightly parted, and her cheeks of a paler hue.