But you can't even be romantic without something to eat and drink." Nora thoroughly understood all this, and being well aware that her fortune in the world, if it ever was to be made at all, could only be made by marriage, had laid down for herself certain hard lines,--lines intended to be as fast as they were hard.

Let what might come 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.