My child, when a man loves a woman, before he tries to win her, he will have, if he loves unselfishly and generously, many a doubt concerning both her and himself. In fact, as I once read somewhere, "When a man truly loves a woman, he would not marry her upon any account, unless he was quite certain he was the best person she could possibly marry." But as soon as she loves him, and he knows it, and is certain that, however unworthy he may be, or however many faults she may possess--I never told you you were an angel, did I, little lady?--they have cast their lot together, chosen one another, as your church says, "for better, for worse,"--then the face of things is entirely changed. He has his rights, close and strong as no other human being can have with regard to her--she has herself given them to him--and if he has any manliness in him he never will let them go, but hold her fast for ever and ever. My dear Theodora, I have not the slightest intention of again subsiding into your friend. I am your lover and your betrothed husband. I will wait for you any number of years, till you have fulfilled all your duties, and no earthly rights have power to separate us longer. But in the meantime I hold fast to _my_ rights. Everything that lover or future husband can be to you, I must be. And when I see you, for I am determined to see you at intervals, do not suppose that it will be a friend's kiss--if there be such a thing--that--But I have said enough--it is not easy for me to express myself on this wise. My love, this letter is partly to consult you on a matter which is somewhat on my mind. With any but you I might hesitate, but I know your mind almost as I know my own, and can speak to you, as I hope I always shall--frankly and freely as a husband would to his wife. About your sister Penelope and her great sorrow I have already written fully. Of her ultimate recovery, mentally as well as bodily, I have little doubt: she has in her the foundations of all endurance--a true upright nature and a religious mind. The first blow over, a certain little girl whom I know will be to her a saving angel; as she has been to others I could name. Fear not, therefore--"Fear God, and have no other fear:" you will bring your sister safe to land. But, you are aware, Penelope is not the only person who has been shipwrecked. I should not intrude this side of the subject at present, did I not feel it to be in some degree a duty, and one that, from certain information that has reached me, will not bear deferring. The more so, because my occupation here ties my own hands so much. You and I do not live for ourselves, you know--nor indeed wholly for one another. I want you to help me, Theodora.