Discovery, earthquake and eclipse,
her mother's chill rage, her father's tears, her sisters' dismay; all this
and more she endured. She passioned like a young martyr. She admitted the
facts without comment, and accepted the consequences without a falter.
They might have whelmed a greater heart than hers; turned on to the town
as she was to all intent, at two-and-twenty, a girl with the face and
figure of a goddess, with fifty pounds between her and the devil. They
might have sent her, at the least, weeping and trembling into Ingram's
arms. But they did not. She was of finer clay. She took a lodging in
Pimlico, and, to fit herself for employment, went to school. The
commercial course which she chose was the shortest possible, but all that
she felt she could afford. "My dear young lady, we can only promise you a
smattering--really no more for the money." "It must start me," said
Sanchia, and began. There was a month more to run when Ingram found her,
and, glad as she was of him, doting and doted upon, in the first flood of
youth and love, she persisted in it, finished it out, and got her diploma
for what it was worth, before, as he put it, she would listen to reason.
It sounded extremely reasonable to him what he then proposed; and also to
her, though Chevenix scorned its propounder.
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