in partnership with a Jones
of Clapham in a London bank."

"Slow folks, those country squires,--behind the progress of the age.
Well?"

"I have heard that Bertram Fletwode was himself very reluctant to take
this step, but was persuaded to do so by his son. This son, Alfred, was
said to have still greater talents for business than the father, and
had been not only associated with but consulted by him in all the later
speculations which had proved so fortunate. Mrs. Campion knew Alfred
Fletwode very well. She describes him as handsome, with quick, eager
eyes; showy and imposing in his talk; immensely ambitious, more
ambitious than avaricious,--collecting money less for its own sake than
for that which it could give,--rank and power. According to her it was
the dearest wish of his heart to claim the old barony, but not before
there could go with the barony a fortune adequate to the lustre of a
title so ancient, and equal to the wealth of modern peers with higher
nominal rank."

"A poor ambition at the best; of the two I should prefer that of a poet
in a garret. But I am no judge. Thank Heaven I have no ambition.
Still, all ambition, all desire to rise, is interesting to him who is
ignominiously contented if he does not fall. So the son had his way,
and Fletwode joined company with Jones on the road to wealth and the
peerage; meanwhile did the son marry? if so, of course the daughter of
a duke or a millionnaire. Tuft-hunting, or money-making, at the risk of
degradation and the workhouse. Progress of the age!"

"No," replied Cecilia, smiling at this outburst, but smiling sadly,
"Fletwode did not marry the daughter of a duke or a millionnaire; but
still his wife belonged to a noble family,--very poor, but very proud.
Perhaps he married from motives of ambition, though not of gain. Her
father was of much political influence that might perhaps assist his
claim to the barony. The mother, a woman of the world, enjoying a high
social position, and nearly related to a connection of ours,--Lady
Glenalvon."

"Lady Glenalvon, the dearest of my lady friends! You are connected with
her?"

"Yes; Lord Glenalvon was my mother's uncle. But I wish to finish my
story before my father joins us. Alfred Fletwode did not marry till long
after the partnership in the bank. His father, at his desire, had bought
up the whole business, Mr. Jones having died. The bank was carried on
in the names of Fletwode and Son. But the father had become me