rm. He
was no taller than Mr. May, and very little taller than Reginald; but
they both shrank into insignificance beside the big self-assertive
figure. He looked about the room as if he was thinking of "buying up"
the whole contents of it, and thought very little of them. A glance of
contempt, a shrug more implied than actual, testified his low opinion of
everything around. When he withdrew his eyes from the furniture he shook
out his leg, as Clarence had done his, and gave a pull to his trousers
that they might sit properly. He had the word "Rich" painted in big
letters all over him, and he seemed to feel it his vocation to show this
sense of superiority. Clarence by his side, the living copy of the great
man's appearance and manners, strutted and put himself forward like his
father, as a big calf might place itself beside the parent cow. Mr.
Copperhead did not look upon his offspring, however, with the cow's
motherly complacency. He laughed at him openly, with cynical amusement.
He was clever in his way, and Clarence was stupid; and besides he was
the proprietor, and Clarence, for all he was porcelain, was his goods
and chattels. When he looked at him, a wicked leer of derision awoke in
his eye.

"Yes, my boy," he said, "thank your stars; you would not make much of it
if you were a poor man. You're an ornament that costs dear; but I can
afford you. So, Northcote, you're changing your opinions--going over to
the Church, eh? Extremes meet, they say; I shouldn't have thought it--"

"I am doing nothing of the kind," said Northcote stoutly. He was not in
a mood to be taken to task by this Mammon of unrighteousness, and indeed
had at all times been a great deal too independent and unwilling to
submit to leading members of the connection. Mr. Copperhead, however,
showed no resentment. Northcote too, like Clarence, had a father before
him, and stood on quite a different footing from the ordinary young
pastor, whose business it was to be humble and accept all that his
betters might portion out.

"Well," he said, "you can afford to please yourself, and that's always
something. By the way, isn't it time to have something to eat? If there
is a good hotel near--"

"Luncheon will be waiting at my house," said Mr. May, who was still
doing his best to please the man upon whom he had built such wild hopes,
"and Ursula will be waiting."

"Ah, ah, the young lady! so she will. I wouldn't miss that for
something; but I don't like pu