ow to go on with
the business in hand. "I believe I am justified in assuring you that
anything you would have said to the Marquis you may say to me."

"Am I to understand that Lord Kingsbury refuses to see me?"

"Well;--yes. At the present crisis he does refuse. What can be
gained?"

Roden did not as yet know how far he might go in mentioning the name
of Lady Frances to the clergyman, but was unwilling to leave the
house without some reference to the business he had in hand. He was
peculiarly averse to leaving an impression that he was afraid to
mention what he had done. "I had to speak to his lordship about his
daughter," he said.

"I know; I know; Lady Frances! I have known Lady Frances since she
was a little child. I have the warmest regard for Lady Frances,--as
I have also for Lord Hampstead,--and for the Marchioness, and for
her three dear little boys, Lord Frederic, Lord Augustus, and Lord
Gregory. I feel a natural hesitation in calling them my friends
because I think that the difference in rank and station which it has
pleased the Lord to institute should be maintained with all their
privileges and all their honours. Though I have agreed with the
Marquis through a long life in those political tenets by propagating
which he has been ever anxious to improve the condition of the lower
classes, I am not and have not been on that account less anxious to
uphold by any small means which may be in my power those variations
in rank, to which, I think, in conjunction with the Protestant
religion, the welfare and high standing of this country are mainly to
be attributed. Having these feelings at my heart very strongly I do
not wish, particularly on such an occasion as this, to seem by even a
chance word to diminish the respect which I feel to be due to all the
members of a family of a rank so exalted as that which belongs to the
family of the Marquis of Kingsbury. Putting that aside for a moment,
I perhaps may venture on this occasion, having had confided to me a
task so delicate as the present, to declare my warm friendship for
all who bear the honoured name of Trafford. I am at any rate entitled
to declare myself so far a friend, that you may say anything on this
delicate subject which you would think it necessary to say to the
young lady's father. However inexpedient it may be that anything
should be said at all, I have been instructed by his lordship to
hear,--and to reply."

George Roden, while he was listening