ersuaded to enter the
militia, and grew soon to be a corporal. Thus there was profit of the
affair, though the navvy sank out of sight. Let us hope and pray he will
not insult the hearing of females again. If only females knew how
necessary it is, for their sakes, to be able to give a lesson now and
then! Ladies are positively opposed. And Judges too, who dress so like
them. The manhood of our country is kept down, in consequence. Mr.
Durance was right, when he said something about the state of war being
wanted to weld our races together: and yet we are always praying for the
state of peace, which causes cracks and gaps among us! Was that what he
meant by illogical? It seemed to Skepsey--oddly, considering his inferior
estimate of the value of the fair sex--that a young woman with whom he
had recently made acquaintance; and who was in Brighton now, upon
missionary work; a member of the 'Army,' an officer of advancing rank,
Matilda Pridden, by name; was nearer to the secret of the right course of
conduct for individual citizens and the entire country than any gentleman
he knew.

Yes, nearer to it than his master was! Thinking of Mr. Victor Radnor,
Skepsey fetched a sigh. He had knocked at his master's door at the office
one day, and imagining the call to enter, had done so, and had seen a
thing he could not expunge. Lady Grace Halley was there. From matters he
gathered, Skepsey guessed her to be working for his master among the
great folks, as he did with Jarniman, and Mr. Fenellan with Mr. Carling.
But is it usual; he asked himself--his natural veneration framing the
rebuke to his master thus--to repay the services of a lady so warmly?--We
have all of us an ermined owl within us to sit in judgement of our
superiors as well as our equals; and the little man, notwithstanding a
servant's bounden submissiveness, was forced to hear the judicial
pronouncement upon his master's behaviour. His master had, at the same
time, been saying most weighty kind words more and more of late: one
thing:--that, if he gave all he had to his fellows, and did all he could,
he should still be in their debt. And he was a very wealthy gentleman.
What are we to think? The ways of our superiors are wonderful. We do them
homage: still we feel, we painfully feel, we are beginning to worship
elsewhere. It is the pain of a detachment of the very roots of our
sea-weed heart from a rock. Mr. Victor Radnor was an honour to his
country. Skepsey did not pla