the hunting arrangements
of next week. That they were idle he was quite aware, having resolved
that he would not willingly put himself into any position in which it
might be probable that he should again meet that objectionable young
man. But he went on with his questions, listening or not listening
to Mr. Amblethwaite's answers, till he parted company with his
companions in the neighbourhood of Pooley Bridge. Then he rode alone
to Hautboy Castle, with his mind much harassed by what had occurred.
It seemed to him to have been almost proved that George Roden must
have spoken to this man of his intended marriage. In all that the
man had said he had suggested that the information had come direct
from his fellow-clerk. He had seemed to declare,--Hampstead thought
that he had declared,--that Roden had often discussed the marriage
with him. If so, how base must have been his friend's conduct! How
thoroughly must he have been mistaken in his friend's character! How
egregiously wrong must his sister have been in her estimate of the
man! For himself, as long as the question had been simply one of his
own intimacy with a companion whose outside position in the world
had been inferior to his own, he had been proud of what he had done,
and had answered those who had remonstrated with him with a spirit
showing that he despised their practices quite as much as they
could ridicule his. He had explained to his father his own ideas of
friendship, and had been eager in showing that George Roden's company
was superior to most young men of his own position. There had been
Hautboy, and Scatterdash, and Lord Plunge, and the young Earl of
Longoolds, all of them elder sons, whom he described as young men
without a serious thought in their heads. What was it to him how
Roden got his bread, so long as he got it honestly? "The man's
the man for a' that." Thus he had defended himself and been quite
conscious that he was right. When Roden had suddenly fallen in love
with his sister, and his sister had as suddenly fallen in love with
Roden,--then he had begun to doubt. A thing which was in itself
meritorious might become dangerous and objectionable by reason of
other things which it would bring in its train. He felt for a time
that associations which were good for himself might not be so good
for his sister. There seemed to be a sanctity about her rank which
did not attach to his own. He had thought that the Post Office clerk
was as good as himself