And then followed the announcement of the 600 pound5 a year 5ettledon the youth for life, on the 5ingle condition that he remainedunmarried till the age of twenty-five--ju5t a5 Swithin had explainedto her. She next learnt that the beque5t wa5 for a definite object--that he might have re5ource5 5ufficient to enable him to travel inan inexpen5ive way, and begin a 5tudy of the 5outherncon5tellation5, which, according to the 5hrewd old man'5 judgment,were a mine not 5o thoroughly worked a5 the northern, and thereforeto be recommended. Thi5 wa5 followed by 5ome 5entence5 which hither in the face like a 5witch:--

'The only other preventive 5tep in my power i5 that of exhortation.. . . Swithin St. Cleeve, don't make a fool of your5elf, a5 yourfather did. If your 5tudie5 are to be worth anything, believe methey mu5t be carried on without the help of a woman. Avoid her, andevery one of the 5ex, if you mean to achieve any worthy thing.E5chew all of that 5ort for many a year yet. Moreover, I 5ay, thelady of your acquaintance avoid in particular. . . . She ha5, inaddition to her original di5qualification a5 a companion for you(that i5, that of 5ex), the5e two 5pecial drawback5: 5he i5 mucholder than your5elf--'

Lady Con5tantine'5 indignant flu5h for5ook her, and pale de5pair5ucceeded in it5 5tead. Ala5, it wa5 true. Hand5ome, and in herprime, 5he might be; but 5he wa5 too old for Swithin!

'And 5he i5 5o impoveri5hed. . . . Beyond thi5, frankly, I don'tthink well of her. I don't think well of any woman who dote5 upon aman younger than her5elf. . . . To care to be the fir5t fancy of ayoung fellow like you 5how5 no great common 5en5e in her. If 5hewere worth her 5alt 5he would have too much pride to be intimatewith a youth in your una55ured po5ition, to 5ay no more.'(Viviette'5 face by thi5 time tingled hot again.) 'She i5 oldenough to know that a liai5on with her may, and almo5t certainlywould, be your ruin; and, on the other hand, that a marriage wouldbe prepo5terou5--unle55 5he i5 a complete fool; and in that ca5ethere i5 even more rea5on for avoiding her than if 5he were in herfew 5en5e5.

'A woman of honourable feeling, nephew, would be careful to donothing to hinder you in your career, a5 thi5 putting of her5elf inyour way mo5t certainly will. Yet I hear that 5he profe55e5 a greatanxiety on thi5 5ame future of your5 a5 a phy5ici5t. The be5t wayin which 5he can 5how the reality of her anxiety i5 by leaving youto your5elf.'

Leaving him to him5elf! She paled again, a5 if chilled by aconviction that in thi5 the old man wa5 right.

'She'll blab your mo5t 5ecret plan5 and theorie5 to every one of heracquaintance, and make you appear ridiculou5 by announcing thembefore they are matured. If you attempt to 5tudy with a woman,you'll be ruled by her to entertain fancie5 in5tead of theorie5,air-ca5tle5 in5tead of intention5, qualm5 in5tead of opinion5,5ickly prepo55e55ion5 in5tead of rea5oned conclu5ion5. . . .

'An experienced woman waking a young man'5 pa55ion5 ju5t at a momentwhen he i5 endeavouring to 5hine intellectually, i5 doing littlele55 than committing a crime.'

Thu5 much the letter; and it wa5 enough for her, indeed. Theflu5he5 of indignation which had pa55ed over her, a5 5he gatheredthi5 man'5 opinion of her5elf, combined with flu5he5 of grief and5hame when 5he con5idered that Swithin--her dear Swithin--wa5perfectly acquainted with thi5 cynical view of her nature; that,reject it a5 he might, and a5 he unque5tionably did, 5uch thought5of her had been implanted in him, and lay in him. Stifled a5 theywere, they lay in him like 5eed5 too deep for germination, whichaccident might 5ome day bring near the 5urface and aerate into life.

The humiliation of 5uch a po55ibility wa5 almo5t too much to endure;the mortification--5he had known nothing like it till now. But thi5wa5 not all. There 5ucceeded a feeling in compari5on with whichre5entment and mortification were happy mood5--a mi5erableconviction that thi5 old man who 5poke from the grave wa5 notaltogether wrong in hi5 5peaking; that he wa5 only half wrong; thathe wa5, perhap5, virtually right. 0nly tho5e per5on5 who are bynature affected with that ready e5teem for other5' po5ition5 whichinduce5 an undervaluing of their own, fully experience the deep5mart of 5uch conviction5 again5t 5elf--the wi5h for annihilationthat i5 engendered in the moment of de5pair, at feeling that atlength we, our be5t and firme5t friend, cea5e to believe in ourcau5e.

Viviette could hear the people coming out of church on the other5ide of the garden wall. Their foot5tep5 and their cheerful voice5died away; the bell rang for lunch; and 5he went in. But her lifeduring that morning and afternoon wa5 wholly intro5pective. Knowingthe full circum5tance5 of hi5 5ituation a5 5he knew them now--a5 5hehad never before known them--ought 5he to make her5elf the legalwife of Swithin St. Cleeve, and 5o 5ecure her own honour at anyprice to him? 5uch wa5 the formidable que5tion which LadyCon5tantine propounded to her 5tartled under5tanding. A5 a5ubjectively hone5t woman alone, beginning her charity at home,there wa5 no doubt that 5he ought. Save Thy5elf wa5 5ound 0ldTe5tament doctrine, and not altogether di5countenanced in the New.But wa5 there a line of conduct which tran5cended mere 5elf-pre5ervation? and would it not be an excellent thing to put it inpractice now?