ade synonymous with social progress I give up. The subject is too
big. Only----'

He hesitated. Mr. Wynnstay was studying him with somewhat insolent
coolness; Lady Charlotte's eyeglass never wavered from his face, and
he felt through every fibre the tender, timid admonitions of his wife's
eyes.

'However,' he went on after an instant, 'I imagine that we should
find it difficult anyhow to discover common ground. I regard your
Archbishop's maxim, Mr. Wendover,' and his tone quickened and grew
louder, 'as first of all a contradiction in terms; and in the next
place, to me, almost all enthusiasms are respectable!'

'You are one of those people, I see,' returned Mr. Wendover, after a
pause, with the same nasal emphasis and the same hauteur, 'who
imagine we owe civilization to the heart; that mankind has _felt_ its
way--literally. The school of the majority, of course--I admit it amply.
I, on the other hand, am with the benighted minority who believe that
the world, so far as it has lived to any purpose, has lived by the
head,' and he flung, the noun at Robert scornfully. 'But I am quite
aware that in a world of claptrap the philosopher gets all the
kicks, and the philanthropists, to give them their own label, all the
halfpence.'

The impassive tone had gradually warmed to a heat which was
unmistakable. Lady Charlotte looked on with interesting relish. To her
all society was a comedy played for her entertainment, and she detected
something more dramatic than usual in the juxtaposition of these two
men. That young Rector might be worth looking after. The dinners in
Martin Street were alarming in want of fresh blood. As for poor Mr.
Bickerton, he had begun to talk hastily to Catherine, with a sense of
something tumbling about his ears, while Mr. Longstaffe, eyeglass
in hand, surveyed the table with a distinct sense of pleasurable
entertainment. He had not seen much of Elsmere yet, but it was as clear
as daylight that the man was a firebrand, and should be kept in order.

Meanwhile there was a pause between the two main disputants; the
storm-clouds were deepening outside, and rain had begun to patter on the
windows. Mrs. Darcy was just calling attention to the weather, when the
Squire unexpectedly returned to the charge.

'The one necessary thing in life,' he said, turning to Lady Charlotte,
a slight irritating smile playing round his strong mouth, 'is--not to be
duped. Put too much faith in these things the altruists tal