, of
his station in life; but he reasoned--if the process of his mind was
reason--that being so exalted, he might please himself; that his wife
would rise to his rank, instead of lowering him; that her father was a
man of education and a gentleman, although he worked with his own hands;
and that Insie was a lady, though she went to fill a pitcher.

For one happy fact the youth deserved some credit, or rather, perhaps,
his youth deserved it for him. He was madly in love with Insie, and
his passion could not be of very high spiritual order; but the idea of
obtaining her dishonorably never occurred to his mind for one moment. He
knew her to be better, purer, and nobler than himself in every way; and
he felt, though he did not want to feel it, that her nature gave a
lift to his. Insie, on the other hand, began to like him better, and to
despise him less and less; his reckless devotion to her made its way;
and in spite of all her common-sense, his beauty and his lordly style
had attractions for her young romance. And at last her heart began to
bound, like his, when they were together. "With all thy faults, I love
thee still," was the loose condition of her youthful mind.

Into every combination, however steep and deep be the gill of its quiet
incubation, a number of people and of things peep in, and will enter,
like the cuckoo, at the glimpse of a white feather, or even without it,
unless beak and claw are shown. And now the intruder into Pet's love
nest had the right to look in, and to pull him out, neck and crop,
unless he sat there legally. Whether birds discharge fraternal duty is
a question for Notes and Queries even in the present most positive
age. Sophocles says that the clever birds feed their parents and their
benefactors, and men ascribe piety to them in fables, as a needful
ensample to one another.

Be that as it may, this Maunder Bart, when his rather slow attention was
once aroused, kept a sharp watch upon his young landlord's works. It was
lucky for Pet that he meant no harm, and that Maunder had contemptuous
faith in him; otherwise Insie's brother would have shortly taken him up
by his gaiters, and softly beaten his head in against a rock. For Mr.
Bart's son was of bitter, morose, and almost savage nature, silent,
moody, and as resolute as death. He resented and darkly repined at the
loss of position and property of which he had heard, and he scorned the
fine sentiments which had led to nothing at all subst