As it was, she would have given much to postpone it, so that she might have asked herself questions, and have discovered whether she could reconcile herself to do that which, no doubt, all her friends would commend her for doing.

Of course, it was clear enough to the mind of the girl that she had her fortune to make, and that her beauty and youth were the capital on which she had to found it.

She had not lived so far from all taint of corruption as to feel any actual horror at the idea of a girl giving herself to a man,--not because the man had already, by his own capacities in that direction, forced her heart from her,--but because he was one likely to be at all points a good husband.

Had all this affair concerned any other girl, any friend of her own, and had she known all the circumstances of the case, she would have had no hesitation in recommending that other girl to marry Mr.Glascock.A girl thrown out upon the world without a shilling must make her hay while the sun shines.

But, nevertheless, there was something within her bosom which made her long for a better thing than this.