8ome  people  will  call  it  a  mSsalliance,  an  unsuitable  marriage
— ^let  them.  There  is  no  unsuitableness  like  utter  diversity
of  mind  and  purpose,  want  of  sympathy,  and,  still  worse,
want  of  love.  Those  marriages  which  to  the  world  appear
to  fit  in  so  nicely,  to  be  so  exactly  suitable,  are  nearly  always
as  unsuitable  as  they  can  be.  It  matters  little  what  people
say."

**Very  little;  but  I  am  unsuitable.  Miss  Cecil,  and  it
matters  very  much  what  I  feel  about  myself.  Nothing
should  make  me  marry  a  man  who  would  be  ashamed  of
me  or  of  my  connexions.  I  want  to  make  the  very  best  of
my  station  in  life,  but  I  do  not  want  to  go  out  of  it."

"  Silly  child  !    Oswald  would  never  be  ashamed  of  you ;

neither  should  I ;  and,  as  for  ypur  connections,  you  do  not

80em  to  have  any  besides  the  Hellicars,  who  would  be  easily

kept  at  arm's  length,  smc^  ^^«Y  «^^  ^cio  Woo^  ^t^^HIv^raa.  ^jxd

have  no  claim  of  any  km^  u^oi^  iw^    ^'s-  cwa'eft^5iaT^si\.
GREY  AND   GOLD.  347

want  you  to  say  you  will  marry  Oswald  immediately ;  in  a
year  or  two  will  be  quite  time  enough  :  he  only  wants  your
promise  that  presently,  when  it  is  decorous,  when  all  things
are  duly  arranged,  you  will  listen  to  him."

"  Only  1  He  wants  all  that  I  have  to  give  !  But  it  never
can  be ;  for,  to  begin,  I  do  not  love  him,  and  you  say  your-
self that  love  is  essential  to  a  true,  heaven-blessed  marriage.
