“Yes, and goodness, and candor, and honor, and truth, and fidelity, papa; do you remember that?  When two beings, conscious, I say, of each other’s virtues—­each other’s failings, if you will—­are united in the bonds of true and pure affection, how could it happen that marriage, which is only the baptism of love upon the altar of the heart, should take away any of the tenderness of this attachment, especially when we reflect that its very emotions are happiness?  Granting that love, in its romantic and ideal sense, may disappear after marriage, I have heard, and I believe, that it assumes a holier and still more tender spirit, and reappears under the sweeter and more beautiful form of domestic affection.  The very consciousness, I should suppose, that our destinies, our hopes, our objects, our cares—­in short, our joys and sorrows, are identical and mutual, to be shared with and by each other, and that all those delightful interchanges of a thousand nameless offices of tenderness that spring up from the on-going business of our own peculiar life—­these alone, I can very well imagine, would constitute an enjoyment far higher, purer, holier, than mere romantic love.  Then, papa, surely we are not to live solely for ourselves.  There are the miseries and wants of others to be lessened or relieved, calamity to be mitigated, the pale and throbbing brow of sickness to be cooled, the heart of the poor and neglected to be sustained and cheered, and the limbs of the weary to be clothed and rested.  Why, papa,” she proceeded, her, dark eye kindling at the noble picture of human duty she had drawn, “when we take into contemplation the delightful impression of two persons going thus, hand in hand, through life, joining in the discharge of their necessary duties, assisting their fellow-creatures, and diffusing good wherever they go—­each strengthening and reflecting the virtues of the other, may we not well ask how they could look upon each other without feeling the highest and noblest spirit of tenderness, affection, and esteem?”

“O yes, I was right, Lucy; all romances, all imagination, all honeypot, with a streak of treacle here and there for the shading,” and, as he spoke, he committed another felony in the disguise of a horse-laugh, which, however, came only from the jaws out.

“But, papa,” she proceeded, anxious to change the subject and curtail the interview, “as I said, I trust something agreeable has happened; you seem in unusually good spirits.”

“Why, yes, Lucy,” he replied, setting his eyes upon her with an expression of good-humor that made her tremble—­“yes, I was in Ballytrain, and had an interview with a friend of yours, who is stopping in the ‘Mitre.’  But, my dear, surely that is no reason why you should all at once grow so pale!  I almost think that you have contracted a habit of becoming pale.  I observed it this morning—­I observe it now; but, after all, perhaps it is only a new method of blushing—­the blush reversed—­that is to say, blushing backwards.  Come, you foolish girl, don’t be alarmed; your lover had more sense than you have, and knew when and where to place confidence.”