f which
Falconer was clearly the bishop. As he is the subject, or rather object
of my book, I will now record a fact which may serve to set forth his
views more clearly. I gained a knowledge of some of the circumstances,
not merely from the friendly confidences of Miss St. John and Falconer,
but from being a kind of a Scotch cousin of Lady Janet Gordon, whom
I had taken an opportunity of acquainting with the relation. She was
old-fashioned enough to acknowledge it even with some eagerness. The
ancient clan-feeling is good in this, that it opens a channel whose very
existence is a justification for the flow of simply human feelings along
all possible levels of social position. And I would there were more of
it. Only something better is coming instead of it--a recognition of the
infinite brotherhood in Christ. All other relations, all attempts
by churches, by associations, by secret societies--of Freemasons and
others, are good merely as they tend to destroy themselves in the wider
truth; as they teach men to be dissatisfied with their limitations. But
I wander; for I mentioned Lady Janet now, merely to account for some of
the information I possess concerning Lady Georgina Betterton.

I met her once at my so-called cousin's, whom she patronized as a dear
old thing. To my mind, she was worth twenty of her, though she was
wrinkled and Scottishly sententious. 'A sweet old bat,' was another
epithet of Lady Georgina's. But she came to see her, notwithstanding,
and did not refuse to share in her nice little dinners, and least of
all, when Falconer was of the party, who had been so much taken with
Lady Janet's behaviour to the Marquis of Boarshead, just recorded, that
he positively cultivated her acquaintance thereafter.

Lady Georgina was of an old family--an aged family, indeed; so old, in
fact, that some envious people professed to think it decrepit with age.
This, however, may well be questioned if any argument bearing on the
point may be drawn from the person of Lady Georgina. She was at least as
tall as Mary St. John, and very handsome--only with somewhat masculine
features and expression. She had very sloping shoulders and a long
neck, which took its finest curves when she was talking to inferiors:
condescension was her forte. Of the admiration of the men, she had had
more than enough, although either they were afraid to go farther, or she
was hard to please.

She had never contemplated anything admirable long enough to