ft he so liberally
bequeathed. It was coupled with the condition that I should retire
from the service, travel for five years, return home, and marry.
There is no silly-forfeiture exacted in either case, but such is the
general course solemnly advised by a man who showed himself my true
friend for so many years."

"I envy him the opportunity he enjoyed of serving you. I hope he
would have approved of your national pride, for I believe we must put
that at the bottom of your disinterestedness, in the affair of the
peerage."

"He would, indeed, although he never knew anything of the claim which
arose out of the death of the two lords who preceded my aunt, and who
were the brothers of my grandmother. My guardian was in all respects
a man, and, in nothing more, than in a manly national pride. While
abroad a decoration was offered him, and he declined it with the
character and dignity of one who felt that distinctions which his
country repudiated, every gentleman belonging to that country ought
to reject; and yet he did it with a respectful gratitude for the
compliment, that was due to the government from which the offer
came."

"I almost envy that man," said John Effingham, with warmth. "To have
appreciated you, Powis, was a mark of a high judgment; but it seems
he properly appreciated himself, his country, and human nature."

"And yet he was little appreciated in his turn. That man passed years
in one of our largest towns, of no more apparent account among its
population than any one of its commoner spirits, and of not half as
much as one of its bustling brokers, or jobbers."

"In that there is nothing surprising. The class of the chosen few is
too small every where, to be very numerous at any given point, in a
scattered population like that of America. The broker will as
naturally appreciate the broker, as the dog appreciates the dog, or
the wolf the wolf. Least of all is the manliness you have named,
likely to be valued among a people who have been put into men's
clothes before they are out of leading-strings. I am older than you,
my dear Paul," it was the first time John Effingham ever used so
familiar an appellation, and the young man thought it sounded
kindly--"I am older than you, my dear Paul, and will venture to tell
you an important fact that may hereafter lessen some of your own
mortifications. In most nations there is a high standard to which man
at least affects to look; and acts are extolled and seemingl