Her chiefest property in life is her self-esteem and
her name before the world. Rob her of these, and her heaven has fallen,
and if a man has shifted the foundations of her peace, there is no
forgiveness for him till her Paradise has been reconquered. So busy were
all the others that they did not see how her strength was failing. There
were three weeks between the day the banns were announced and the day of
the wedding, which was to be in the village church, not in town; for, as
Marion said, she had seen too many marriages for one day's triumph and
criticism; she wanted hers where there would be neither triumph nor
criticism, but among people who had known her from her childhood up.
A happy romance had raised Marion's point of view.
Meanwhile Frank was winning the confidence of his own child, who,
however, ranked Richard higher always, and became to a degree his
father's tyrant. But Frank's nature was undergoing a change. His point
of view also had enlarged. The suffering, bitterness, and humiliation of
his life in the North had done him good.
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