ds, who undertook the charge not
unwillingly, being possessed by his own plan. Mr. Copperhead went all
over Carlingford. He inspected the town-hall, the infirmary, and the
church, with the business-like air of a man who was doing his duty.

"Poor little place, but well enough for the country," he said. "A
country-town's a mistake in my opinion. If I had it in my power I'd raze
them all to the ground, and have one London and the rest green fields.
That's your sort, Mr. May. Now you don't produce anything here, what's
the good of you? All unproductive communities, sir, ought to be swept
off the face of the earth. I'd let Manchester and those sort of places
go on till they burst; but a bit of a little piggery like this, where
there's nothing doing, no trade, no productions of any kind."

"We like it all the same," said Mr. May; "we small sort of people who
have no enterprise like you--"

"I dare say you like it! To be sure, you can moon about here as much as
you please, and make believe to do something, and there's nobody to
contradict you. In a great centre of industry you couldn't live like
that; you must work or you'll get pushed aside altogether; unless, of
course, you're a millionnaire to start with," Mr. Copperhead added, with
a noisy laugh.

"Which I am not certainly--very much the reverse--in short, a poor man
with a large family, which I suppose is a thing about as objectionable
in a centre of industry as anything can be."

"The large family ain't objectionable if you make 'em work," said Mr.
Copperhead; "it all depends on that. There's always objections, you
know," he said, with a jocular grin, "to pretty girls like that daughter
of yours put straight in a young fellow's way. You won't mind my saying
it? They neither work themselves nor let others work--that sort. I think
we could get on with a deal fewer women, I must allow. There's where
Providence is in a mistake. We don't want 'em in England; it's a waste
of raw material. They're bad for the men, and they ain't much good for
themselves, that I can see."

"You are a little hard upon the ladies, Mr. Copperhead."

"Not I--we can't do without 'em of course, and the surplus we ought to
export as we export other surpluses; but I object to them in a young
man's way, not meaning anything unpleasant to you. And perhaps if I had
been put up to it sooner--but let's hope there's no mischief done. What
is this now? some of your antiquities, I suppose. Oh yes, let's