e who knew him best, and especially to those who liked him
least--that shining, glorified, inspired, and yet sophisticated product
of modern university culture, an academic prig. The word is not of
necessity a term of reproach. Perhaps we are all prigs at some season in
our lives, if we happen to have any inherent power of doing great
things. There are lovable prigs, who grow into admirable men and women;
but, alas! for the prig whose self-love coils round him like a snake,
until it crushes out the ingenuous fervor of youth, and perverts the
noblest aspirations of manhood!

From Cambridge Sydney went to London, and was called to the bar. Here,
of course, his progress was not so rapid. Briefs do not come for
wishing, nor even for merit alone. Nevertheless he was advancing year by
year in the estimation of good judges; and it was known to his father,
and to his intimate friends, that he only waited a favorable opportunity
to stand for a seat in parliament.

At Angleford, in the meantime, they watched his career with proud hearts
and loving sympathy. Mrs. Campion, in particular, doted on her son. She
even scanned the paper every morning, never by any chance missing an
item of law intelligence, where occasionally she would be rewarded by
coming across Sydney's name. She would not have considered any
distinction, however great, to be more than his due.

Lettice never thought of disagreeing with her mother when she sang the
praises of Sydney; but it must be confessed that both the rector and his
wife displayed less than their ordinary balance of judgment in
discussing the merits of their son. They unconsciously did much
injustice to the girl, by their excessive adulation of her brother, and
her interests were constantly sacrificed to his. She would have been the
last to admit that it was so; but the fact was clear enough to the few
persons who used to visit them at Angleford. Her friend, Clara Graham,
for instance, the wife of a London journalist, who came down now and
then to spend a holiday in her native village, would attempt to
commiserate Lettice on the hardness of her lot; but Lettice would not
listen to anything of the kind. She was too loyal to permit a word to be
spoken in her presence which might seem to reflect upon her parents or
her brother.

Yet it would have been impossible that she should not be in some way
affected by the change which had come over her life since Sydney went to
Cambridge. From that day he