that makes
papa so unhappy."

"Papa unhappy! Why, what does he know against him? I thought the
Riverses were his peculiar pets."

"The Riverses! As if, because one liked the sparkling stream, one must
like a muddy ditch."

"What harm do you know of him?" said Norman, with much surprise and
anxiety, as if he feared that he had been doing wrong, in ignorance.

"Harm! Is he not a regular oaf?"

"My dear Ethel, if you wait to marry till you find some one as clever as
yourself, you will wait long enough."

"I don't think it right for a woman to marry a man decidedly her
inferior."

"We have all learned to think much too highly of talent," said Norman
gravely.

"I don't care for mere talent--people are generally more sensible
without it; but, one way or other, there ought to be superiority on the
man's side."

"Well, who says there is not?"

"My dear Norman! Why, this George Rivers is really below the average!
you cannot deny that! Did you ever meet any one so stupid?"

"Really!" said Norman, considering; and, speaking very innocently, "I
cannot see why you think so. I do not see that he is at all less capable
of sustaining a conversation than Richard."

Ethel sat down, perfectly breathless with amazement and indignation.

Norman saw that he had shocked her very much. "I do not mean," he said,
"that we have not much more to say to Richard; all I meant to say was,
merely as to the intellect."

"I tell you," said Ethel, "it is not the intellect. Richard! why, you
know how we respect, and look up to him. Dear old Ritchie! with his
goodness, and earnestness, and right judgment--to compare him to that
man! Norman, Norman, I never thought it of you!"

"You do not understand me, Ethel. I only cited Richard, as a person who
proves how little cleverness is needed to insure respect."

"And, I tell you, that cleverness is not the point."

"It is the only objection you have put forward."

"I did wrong," said Ethel. "It is not the real one. It is earnest
goodness that one honours in Richard. Where do we find it in this man,
who has never done anything but yawn over his self indulgence?"

"Now, Ethel, you are working yourself up into a state of foolish
prejudice. You and papa have taken a dislike to him; and you are
overlooking a great deal of good safe sense and right thinking. I
know his opinions are sound, and his motives right. He has been
undereducated, we all see, and is not very brilliant or talkative; but I