As to real blessedness, does it not come from fitness to the outer life and a sense of duty that shall produce such fitness?
Does any one believe that the Countess has a greater share of happiness than the grocer's wife, or is less subject to the miseries which flesh inherits?
But such matters cannot be changed by the will.

This woman could not bid her daughter go and meet the butcher's son on equal terms, or seek her friends among the milliners of the neighbouring town.

The burden had been imposed and must be borne, even though it isolated them from all the world.
"Mother, is it always to be like this ?" Of course the mother knew what was needed.

It was needed that the girl should go out into the world and pair, that she should find some shoulder on which she might lean, some arm that would be strong to surround her, the heart of some man and the work of some man to which she might devote herself.

The girl, when she asked her question, did not know this,--but the mother knew it.