"Strange to the ideas and customs of your world, I
cannot conceive that a woman can wish to take the last place in a
household like ours rather than the first or only one with the poorest
of her people."
"She will hardly have the choice," Eveena answered. "Those whom you
can call poor mostly wait till they can have their choice before they
marry; and if taken by some one who could not afford a more expensive
choice, she would only be neglected, or dismissed ill provided for, as
soon as he could purchase one more to his taste."
"If," I rejoined at last, "you think it a kindness to her, and are
sure she will so think it; if you wish it, and will avouch her
contentment with a place in the household of one who does not desire
her, I will comply with this as with any wish of yours. But it is not
to my: mind to take a wife out of mere compassion, as I might readily
adopt a child."
Once more, with all our mutual affection and appreciation of each
other's character, Eveena and I were fat as the Poles apart in thought
if not in feeling. It was as impossible for her to emancipate herself
utterly from the ideas and habits of her own world, as for me to
reconcile myself to them.
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