And why should such a man have been flattered by a
woman who was in all respects his superior? The reader will
understand. It had been settled by the wisdom of the elders that
it would be a good thing that Lord Popplecourt should marry Lady
Mary Palliser.
The mutual assent which leads to marriage should no doubt be
spontaneous. Who does not feel that? Young love should speak from
its first doubtful unconscious spark,--a spark which any breath of
air may quench or cherish,--till it becomes a flame which nothing
can satisfy but the union of two lovers. No one should be told to
love, or bidden to marry this man or that woman. The theory of
this is plain to us all, and till we have sons or daughters whom
we feel imperatively obliged to control, the theory is
unassailable. But the duty is so imperative! The Duke taught
himself to believe that as his wife would have been thrown away on
the world had she been allowed to marry Burgo Fitzgerald, so would
his daughter be thrown away were she allowed to marry Mr Tregear.
Therefore the theory of spontaneous love must in this case be set
aside.
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