to her in the way of likings and dislikings, let the temptation
to her be ever so strong, she would never allow her heart to rest
on a man who, if he should ask her to be his wife, would not have
the means of supporting her. There were many, she knew, who would
condemn such a resolution as cold, selfish, and heartless. She
heard people saying so daily. She read in books that it ought to
be so regarded. But she declared to herself that she would respect
the judgment neither of the people nor of the books. To be poor
alone, to have to live without a husband, to look forward to a life
in which there would be nothing of a career, almost nothing to do,
to await the vacuity of an existence in which she would be useful
to no one, was a destiny which she could teach herself to endure,
because it might probably be forced upon her by necessity. Were her
father to die there would hardly be bread for that female flock to
eat. As it was, she was eating the bread of a man in whose house
she was no more than a visitor. The lot of a woman; as she often
told herself, was wretched, unfortunate, almost degrading. For a
woman such as herself there was no path open to her energy, other
than that of getting a husband. Nora Rowley thought of all this till
she was almost sick of the prospect of her life--especially sick
of it when she was told with much authority by the Lady Milboroughs
of her acquaintance, that it was her bounden duty to fall in love
with Mr Glascock. As to falling in love with Mr Glascock, she had
not as yet quite made up her mind. There was so much to be said on
that side of the question, if such falling in love could only be
made possible. But she had quite made up her mind that she would
never fall in love with a poor man. In spite, however, of all that,
she felt herself compelled to make comparisons between Mr Glascock
and one Mr Hugh Stanbury, a gentleman who had not a shilling.