138 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.
CHAPTER XIX.
"WHAT FATES IMPOSE, THAT MEN MUST NEEDS ABIDE."
They awoke to a new life the next day, several persons in this history. The old order of things had changed in a night. Dolly had a new position in the eyes of herself, her relations and friends; she was "engaged." Mrs. Milbanke entered upon a fresh phase of existence; her sister had "accepted" Mr. Philip Forsyth; Lady Forsyth would be Dolly's mother-in-law. Mr. Samuel Swynford might no longer feel that in his city operations he was working for a future in which Dolly Norcott would have the leading part. Dick Chetwynd believed that the career of his friend Philip Forsyth had now become secure. Hitherto his prospects had needed the ballast of responsible duties. Married to Dolly, his ambition would be fostered by an absence of what the young fellow had considered the absolute necessity of earning his own living: for although Lady Forsyth had a fair income, she spent every penny of it and did not keep out of debt, and the possibility of her death and his inheritance of the property left by his father did not for a moment enter into Philip's calculations.
Lady Forsyth felt something like a sense of triumph in the engagement of Philip and Dorothy, for many reasons; it secured her son's independence, it relieved her of a kind of responsibility as to his future, she liked Dolly, thought the Milbankes pleasant successful people, and the excitement of the wedding and getting ready for it would be an agreeable break in her life, which, lively as it was in a general way, the tune of it was all on one string.
