oses."

"David, this is useless. The last train from London went through an hour
ago and we haven't ten minutes for the next. Order him to return and
we'll consider calmly."

David laughed bitterly, and only sprang into the coach and shut the door
with a crash. "Drive on, John," he shouted through the window, and again
they were off at a mad gallop.

His mother turned and looked at him astounded. "Let me read what she has
written you, my son," she implored, half frightened at his frenzy.

"It's of no use for you to read it. We can't talk now, not rationally."

"Then tell him not to drive so furiously, so we can hear each other."

"I would avoid useless discussion, mother, but you force it." An instant
he paused, and his teeth ground together and his jaw set rigidly, then
he continued with a savage force that appalled her, throwing out short
sentences like daggers. "Lord H---- brings home an American wife. His
family are well pleased. She is every where received. Her father is a
rich brewer. Her brother has turned out his millions from the business
of pork packing. The stench from his establishment pollutes miles of
country, but does not reach England--why? Because of the disinfectant
process of transmuting their greasy American dollars into golden English
sovereigns. There's justice."

"Be reasonable, David. Their estates were involved to the last degree
and those sovereigns saved the family. Without them they would have
passed out of their possession utterly, and been divided among our rich
tradespeople, and the family would have descended rapidly to the
undergrades. It goes to show the value of birth, what is more, and how
those Americans, who made a pretence long ago of scorning birth and
title and casting it all off, are glad enough now to buy their way back
again, if not for themselves, for their children. But, David, for a man
to voluntarily degrade his family by marrying beneath him, with no such
need as that of Lord H----, of ultimately by that very means lifting it
up is--is--inexpressible--why--! In the case of Lord H---- there was a
certain nobility in marrying beneath him."

"Beneath him! For me, I married above me, over all of us, when I took my
sweet, clean mountain girl. The nobility of Lord H---- is unique. Lady
H---- made a poor bargain when she left the mingled stenches of brewing
and butchering to step into the moral stench which depleted the
Stonebreck estates."

"You are not like my son, D