"I do not wish to contract expensive habits," said Alice,
reproachfully. "I shall have to content myself with frugal ones
throughout my life."

"Not necessarily. Tell me, frankly: how had you proposed to exert
yourself? As a teacher, was it not?"

Alice flushed, but assented.

"You are not at all fitted for it; and you will end by marrying. As
a teacher you could not marry well. As an idle lady, with expensive
habits, you will marry very well indeed. It is quite an art to know
how to be rich--an indispensable art, if you mean to marry a rich
man."

"I have no intention of marrying," said Alice, loftily. She thought
it time to check this cool aristocrat. "If I come at all I shall
come without any ulterior object."

"That is just what I had hoped. Come without condition, or second
thought of any kind."

"But--" began Alice, and stopped, bewildered by the pace at which
the negotiation was proceeding. She murmured a few words, and waited
for Lydia to proceed. But Lydia had said her say, and evidently
expected a reply, though she seemed assured of having her own way,
whatever Alice's views might be.

"I do not quite understand, Miss Carew. What duties?--what would you