hey respect no one; above all, not their elders. To such a
one his horse comes first, if he have a horse; then a dog; and then a
stick; and after that the mistress of his affections. But their fault is
not altogether of their own making. It is the girls themselves who spoil
them and endure their inanity, because of that assumed look of
superiority which to the eyes of the outside world would be a little
offensive were it not a little foolish. But they do not marry often.
Whether it be that the girls know better at last, or that they
themselves do not see sufficiently clearly their future dinners, who can
say? They are for the most part younger brothers, and perhaps have
discovered the best way of getting out of the world whatever scraps the
world can afford them. Harry Annesley's faults were altogether of
another kind. In regard to this young woman, the Florence whom he had
loved, he had been over-modest. Now his feeling of glory was altogether
redundant. Having been told by Florence that she was devoted to him, he
walked with his head among the heavens. The first instinct with such a
young man as those of whom I have spoken teaches him, the moment he has
committed himself, to begin to consider how he can get out of the
scrape. It is not much of a scrape, for when an older man comes this
way, a man verging toward baldness, with a good professional income, our
little friend is forgotten and he is passed by without a word. But Harry
had now a conviction,--on that one special night,--that he never would be
forgotten and never would forget. He was filled at once with an unwonted
pride. All the world was now at his feet, and all the stars were open to
him. He had begun to have a glimmering of what it was that Augustus
Scarborough intended to do; but the intentions of Augustus Scarborough
were now of no moment to him. He was clothed in a panoply of armor which
would be true against all weapons. At any rate, on that night and during
the next day this feeling remained the same with him.

Then he received a summons from his mother at Buston. His mother pressed
him to come at once down to the parsonage. "Your uncle has been with
your father, and has said terrible things about you. As you know, my
brother is not very strong-minded, and I should not care so much for
what he says were it not that so much is in his hands. I cannot
understand what it is all about, but your father says that he does
nothing but threaten. He talks of putt