“Thank you, dear uncle. Again your decision has given me pleasure as well as peace. I _did_ wish to go everywhere with you and Anna; but I was resolved to go only as Mrs. Lyon, though I was afraid that by doing so I should appear under false colors. But your clear and wise exposition has set all my anxieties at rest. I am glad you still wish me to go into company,” said Drusilla, earnestly. “My dear, I have a motive for wishing you to go. Drusilla, my child, you and I may surely confide in each other?” “As the dearest father and child, dear uncle, yes.” “Then, Drusa, my darling, in these two years that you have been with us, I have studied you to some purpose. I see you very cheerful, my child, but I know that you are not quite happy. Something is wanting, and of course I see what it is;—it is Alexander, since you still love him with unchanging constancy.” “Oh, yes, yes, yes,” breathed Drusilla, in a very low tone. “I know you do. Well, as you love Alick, so he needs you, whether he knows it or not. You are the angel of his life, and the only power under Heaven that can save him. I know Alexander well. I have known him from his infancy, and of course I know all the strong and all the weak points in his character.” Drusilla raised her eyes to the old man’s face with a deprecating and pleading expression. “Fear nothing, my child; I am not going to abuse him, at least not to you; in saying that he has his weak points, I say no more of him than I might say of myself or any other man. But it is through their weakness men are often saved as well as through their strength. Listen to me, my dear Drusilla.” “I am listening, sir.” “Well, then, Alick’s chief weakness is that he can only admire through the eyes of the world, for which he has always had the greatest veneration.” “Do you think so, sir? Ah, surely he was not considering the world’s opinion when he married me, his housekeeper’s daughter,” pleaded Drusilla. “No; passion, if he is capable of feeling at all, makes even a worldly man forget the world sometimes. And, pardon me, my dear Drusilla, if I say that he married you for your personal attractions, for your perfect beauty and brilliant genius—of that in your nature which is fairer than beauty and brighter than genius, and better and lovelier than both, he knew nothing at all; he has yet to learn of them.” Drusilla, blushing deeply under this praise, which was but just tribute, kept her eyes fixed upon the floor. General Lyon continued: “Yes, my dear, he is worldly—he worships the world and sees through the eyes of the world. What was it that blinded him to your sweet domestic virtues and tempted him from your side? It was the brilliant social success of Anna—of Anna, for whom he cared not a cent, and whom he had really jilted for your sake; but with whom he actually fancied himself in love as soon as he found her out to be belle of the season, the queen of fashion, and all that ephemeral rubbish.”