don't do with their chance? Why do you wish their love well, if it's
that? Is marriage such a very certain good?"

"It isn't all that it might be, but it's all that there is. What would
our lives have been without it?" she retorted.

"Oh, we should have got on. It's such a tremendous risk that we, ought to
go round begging people to think twice, to count a hundred, or a
nonillion, before they fall in love to the marrying-point. I don't mind
their flirting; that amuses them; but marrying is a different thing. I
doubt if Papa Triscoe would take kindly to the notion of a son-in-law he
hadn't selected himself, and his daughter doesn't strike me as a young
lady who has any wisdom to throw away on a choice. She has her little
charm; her little gift of beauty, of grace, of spirit, and the other
things that go with her age and sex; but what could she do for a fellow
like Burnamy, who has his way to make, who has the ladder of fame to
climb, with an old mother at the bottom of it to look after? You wouldn't
want him to have an eye on Miss Triscoe's money, even if she had money,
and I doubt if she has much. It's all very pretty to have a girl like her
fascinated with a youth of his simple traditions; though Burnamy isn't
altogether pastoral in his ideals, and he looks forward to a place in the
very world she belongs to. I don't think it's for us to promote the
affair."

"Well, perhaps you're right," she sighed. "I will let them alone from
this out. Thank goodness, I shall not have them under my eyes very long."

"Oh, I don't think there's any harm done yet," said her husband, with a
laugh.