CHAPTER III.
SHIRLEY SEEKS TO BE SAVED BY WORKS.
"Of course, I know he will marry Shirley," were her first words when she rose in the morning. "And he ought to marry her: she can help him," she added firmly. "But I shall be forgotten when they are married," was the cruel succeeding thought. "Oh! I shall be wholly forgotten! And what—what shall I do when Robert is taken quite from me? Where shall I turn? My Robert! I wish I could justly call him mine: but I am poverty and incapacity; Shirley is wealth and power: and she is beauty too, and love—I cannot deny it. This is no sordid suit: she loves him—not with inferior feelings: she loves, or will love, as he must feel proud to be loved. Not a valid objection can be made. Let them be married then: but afterwards I shall be nothing to him. As for being his sister and all that stuff, I despise it. I will either be all or nothing to a man like Robert: no feeble shuffling, or false cant is endurable. Once let that pair be united, and I will
