A woman of thirty will often love well and not wisely; but the girls of twenty seem to me to like propriety of demeanour, decency of outward life, and a competence.  It is, of course, good that it should be so; but if it is so, they should not also claim a general character for generous and passionate indiscretion, asserting as their motto that Love shall still be Lord of All.  Clara was more than twenty; but she was not yet so far advanced in age as to have lost her taste for decency of demeanour and propriety of life.  A Member of Parliament, with a small house near Eaton Square, with a moderate income, and a liking for committees, who would write a pamphlet once every two years, and read Dante critically during the recess, was, to her, the model for a husband.  For such a one she would read his blue books, copy his pamphlets, and learn his translations by heart.  She would be safe in the hands of such a man, and would know nothing of the miseries which her brother bad encountered.  Her model may not appear, when thus described, to be a very noble one; but I think it is the model most approved among ladies of her class in England.

She made up her mind on various points during those two hours of solitude.  In the first place, she would of course keep her purpose of returning home on the following day.  It was not probable that Captain Aylmer would ask her to change it; but let him ask ever so much it must not be changed.  She must at once have the pleasure of telling her father that all his trouble about her would now be over; and then, there was the consideration that her further sojourn in the house, with Captain Aylmer as her lover, would hardly be more proper than it would have been bad he not occupied that position.  And what was she to say if he pressed her as to the time of their marriage?  Her aunt’s death would of course be a sufficient reason why it should be delayed for some few months; and, upon the whole, she thought it would be best to postpone it till the next session of Parliament should have nearly expired.  But she would be prepared to yield to Captain Aylmer, should he name any time after Easter.  It was clearly his intention to keep up the house in Perivale as his country residence.  She did not like Perivale or the house, but she would say nothing against such am arrangement.  Indeed, with what face could she do so?  She was going to bring nothing to the common account absolutely nothing but herself!  As she thought of this her love grew warmer, and she hardly knew how sufficiently to testify to herself her own gratitude and affection.

She became conscious, as she was preparing herself for dinner, of some special attention to her toilet.  She was more than ordinarily careful with her hair, and felt herself to be aware of an anxiety to look her best.  She had now been for some time so accustomed to dress herself in black, that in that respect her aunt’s death had made no difference to her.  Deep mourning had ceased from habit to impress her