ed.

'Shut the door, please,' said her father. All three were now standing
about the room. 'Your brother has brought me a piece of news. It ought
to interest you, I should think. He wants to marry, and out of all the
world, he has chosen Miss. French--the youngest.' Horace's position was
trying. He did not know what to do with his hands, and he kept balancing
now on one foot, now on the other. Nancy had her eyes averted from him,
but she met her father's look gravely.

'Now, I want to ask you,' Mr. Lord proceeded, 'whether you consider
Miss. French a suitable wife for your brother? Just give me a plain yes
or no.'

'I certainly don't,' replied the girl, barely subduing the tremor of her
voice.

'Both my children are not fools, thank Heaven! Now tell me, if you can,
what fault you have to find with the "young lady," as your brother calls
her?'

'For one thing, I don't think her Horace's equal. She can't really be
called a lady.'

'You are listening?'

Horace bit his lip in mortification, and again his head swung doggedly
from side to side.

'We might pass over that,' added Mr. Lord. 'What about her character? Is
there any good point in her?'

'I don't think she means any harm. But she's silly, and I've often
thought her selfish.'

'You are listening?'

Horace lost patience.

'Then why do you pretend to be friends with her?' he demanded almost
fiercely.

'I don't,' replied his sister, with a note of disdain. 'We knew each
other at school, and we haven't altogether broken off, that's all.'

'It isn't all!' shouted the young man on a high key. 'If you're not
friendly with her and her sisters, you've been a great hypocrite. It's
only just lately you have begun to think yourself too good for them.
They used to come here, and you went to them; and you talked just like
friends would do. It's abominable to turn round like this, for the sake
of taking father's side against me!'

Mr. Lord regarded his son contemptuously. There was a rather long
silence; he spoke at length with severe deliberation.

'When you are ten years older, you'll know a good deal more about young
women as they're turned out in these times. You'll have heard the talk
of men who have been fools enough to marry choice specimens. When common
sense has a chance of getting in a word with you, you'll understand
what I now tell you. Wherever you look now-a-days there's sham and
rottenness; but the most worthless creature living is one of these