of confuting himself,--this was more than the Marquis could
endure. He could not horsewhip Mr. Fenwick; nor could he send out
his retainers to do so; but, thank God, there was a bishop! He did
not quite see his way, but he thought that Mr. Fenwick might be made
at least to leave that parish. "Turn my daughters out of my house,
because--oh, oh!" He almost put his fist through the carriage window
in the energy of his action as he thought of it.

As it happened, the Marquis of Trowbridge had never sat in the House
of Commons, but he had a son who sat there now. Lord St. George was
member for another county in which Lord Trowbridge had an estate,
and was a man of the world. His father admired him much, and trusted
him a good deal, but still had an idea that his son hardly estimated
in the proper light the position in the world which he was called
to fill. Lord St. George was now at home at the Castle, and in the
course of that evening the father, as a matter of course, consulted
the son. He considered that it would be his duty to write to the
bishop, but he would like to hear St. George's idea on the subject.
He began, of course, by saying that he did not doubt but that St.
George would agree with him.

"I shouldn't make any fuss about it," said the son.

"What! pass it over?"

"Yes; I think so."

"Do you understand the kind of allusion that was made to your
sisters?"

"It won't hurt them, my lord; and people make allusion to everything
now-a-days. The bishop can't do anything. For aught you know he and
Fenwick may be bosom friends."

"The bishop, St. George, is a most right-thinking man."

"No doubt. The bishops, I believe, are all right-thinking men, and it
is well for them that they are so very seldom called on to go beyond
thinking. No doubt he'll think that this fellow was indiscreet; but
he can't go beyond thinking. You'll only be raising a blister for
yourself."

"Raising a what?"

"A blister, my lord. The longer I live the more convinced I become
that a man shouldn't keep his own sores open."

There was something in the tone of his son's conversation which
pained the Marquis much; but his son was known to be a wise and
prudent man, and one who was rising in the political world. The
Marquis sighed, and shook his head, and murmured something as to the
duty which lay upon the great to bear the troubles incident to their
greatness;--by which he meant that sores and blisters should be
kept open, if the e