sh earl; count goes for nothing. The Earl of Montfort! An
enthusiastic admirer of mine! The aristocracy of England, especially the
old aristocracy, are highly cultivated. Sympathy from such a class is
to be valued. I care for no other--I have always despised the million of
vulgar. They have come to me, not I to them, and I have always told
them the truth about themselves, that they are a race of snobs, and they
rather like being told so. And now for your day?"

"Why not this day if you be free? I will call for you about eight, and
take you in my brougham to Montfort House."

"You have got a brougham! Well, I suppose so, being a member of
parliament, though I know a good many members of parliament who have not
got broughams. But your family, I remember, married into the swells. I
do not grudge it you. You were always a good comrade to me. I never knew
a man more free from envy than you, Ferrars, and envy is an odious vice.
There are people I know, who, when they hear I have dined with the Earl
of Montfort, will invent all sorts of stories against me, and send them
to what they call the journals of society."

"Well, then, it shall be to-day," said Endymion, rising.

"It shall be to-day, and to tell the truth, I was thinking this morning
where I should dine to-day. What I miss here are the cafes. Now in Paris
you can dine every day exactly as it suits your means and mood. You may
dine for a couple of francs in a quiet, unknown street, and very well;
or you may dine for a couple of napoleons in a flaming saloon, with
windows opening on a crowded boulevard. London is deficient in dining
capability."

"You should belong to a club. Do you not?"

"So I was told by a friend of mine the other day,--one of your great
swells. He said I ought to belong to the Athenaeum, and he would
propose me, and the committee would elect me as a matter of course. They
rejected me and selected a bishop. And then people are surprised that
the Church is in danger!"

CHAPTER LXXVIII

The condition of England at the meeting of Parliament in 1842 was not
satisfactory. The depression of trade in the manufacturing districts
seemed overwhelming, and continued increasing during the whole of the
year. A memorial from Stockport to the Queen in the spring represented
that more than half the master spinners had failed, and that no less
than three thousand dwelling-houses were untenanted. One-fifth of the
population of Leeds were dependent on the p