e would be a fit
companion for any lady,--as long as the woman was neither vicious
nor disagreeable. He could make any woman a lady; he could, at any
rate, make Polly Neefit a lady. He rose from his seat, and prepared
to leave the room in disgust. "I won't trouble you by coming here
again," he said.

"You are welcome, Ralph," said Sir Thomas. "If I could assist you,
you would be doubly welcome."

"I know I have been a great trouble to you,--a thankless, fruitless,
worthless trouble. I shall make up my mind, no doubt, in a day or
two, and I will just write you a line. I need not bother you by
coming any more. Of course I think a great deal about it."

"No doubt," said Sir Thomas.

"Unluckily I have been brought up to know the value of what it is
I have to throw away. It is a kind of thing that a man doesn't do
without some regrets."

"They should have come earlier," said Sir Thomas.

"No doubt;--but they didn't, and it is no use saying anything more
about it. Good-day, sir." Then he flounced out of the room, impatient
of that single word of rebuke which had been administered to him.

Sir Thomas, as soon as he was alone, applied himself at once to the
book which he had reluctantly put aside when he was disturbed. But he
could not divest his mind of its trouble, as quickly as his chamber
had been divested of the presence of its troubler. He had said
an ill-natured word, and that grieved him. And then,--was he not
taking all this great matter too easily? If he would only put his
shoulder to the wheel thoroughly might he not do something to save
this friend,--this lad, who had been almost as his own son,--from
destruction? Would it not be a burden on his conscience to the last
day of his life that he had allowed his ward to be ruined, when by
some sacrifice of his own means he might have saved him? He sat and
thought of it, but did not really resolve that anything could be
done. He was wont to think in the same way of his own children, whom
he neglected. His conscience had been pricking him all his life, but
it hardly pricked him sharp enough to produce consequences.

During those very moments in which Ralph was leaving Southampton
Buildings he had almost made up his mind to go at once to Alexandria
Cottage, and to throw himself and the future fate of Newton Priory at
the feet of Polly Neefit. Two incidents in his late interview with
Sir Thomas tended to drive him that way. Sir Thomas had told him that
should he m