n with any other. One man who ought to be
dearer to me than Mr. Gordon, for he saved the life of my son, and who,
though perhaps less clever than Mr. Gordon, still has a great deal of
talent within him, which might come forth and make him--what shall I
say?--a useful and distinguished member of society, if married to a girl
so sure of raising any man she marries as Cecilia Travers. But if I am
to renounce that hope, and look through the range of young men brought
under my notice, I don't know one, putting aside consideration of rank
and fortune, I should prefer for a clever daughter who went heart and
soul with the ambition of a clever man. But, Mrs. Campion, I have not
yet quite renounced my hope; and, unless I do, I yet think there is one
man to whom I would rather give Cecilia, if she were my daughter."

Therewith Lady Glenalvon so decidedly broke off the subject of
conversation that Mrs. Campion could not have renewed it without such a
breach of the female etiquette of good breeding as Mrs. Campion was the
last person to adventure.

Lady Chillingly could not help being pleased with Gordon. He was light
in hand, served to amuse her guests, and made up a rubber of whist in
case of need.

There were two persons, however, with whom Gordon made no ground;
namely, Parson John and Sir Peter. When Travers praised him one day for
the solidity of his parts and the soundness of his judgment, the Parson
replied snappishly, "Yes, solid and sound as one of those tables you
buy at a broker's; the thickness of the varnish hides the defects in
the joints: the whole framework is rickety." But when the Parson was
indignantly urged to state the reason by which he arrived at so harsh
a conclusion, he could only reply by an assertion which seemed to his
questioner a declamatory burst of parsonic intolerance.

"Because," said Parson John, "he has no love for man, and no reverence
for God. And no character is sound and solid which enlarges its surface
at the expense of its supports."

On the other hand, the favour with which Sir Peter had at first regarded
Gordon gradually vanished, in proportion as, acting on the hint Mivers
had originally thrown out but did not deem it necessary to repeat, he
watched the pains which the young man took to insinuate himself into
the good graces of Mr. Travers and Mrs. Campion, and the artful and
half-suppressed gallantry of his manner to the heiress.

Perhaps Gordon had not ventured thus "to feel his