that former trial which had taken place when he,
Lucius, was yet a baby. "And, dearest Lucius, you must not be angry
with me," she went on to say; "I am suffering much under this cruel
persecution, but my sufferings would be more than doubled if my own
boy quarrelled with me." Lucius, when he received this, flung up his
head. "Quarrel with her," he said to himself; "nothing on earth would
make me quarrel with her; but I cannot say that that is right which I
think to be wrong." His feelings were good and honest, and kindly too
in their way; but tenderness of heart was not his weakness. I should
wrong him if I were to say that he was hard-hearted, but he flattered
himself that he was just-hearted, which sometimes is nearly the
same--as had been the case with his father before him, and was now
the case with his half-brother Joseph.

The day after this was his last at Noningsby. He had told Lady
Staveley that he intended to go, and though she had pressed his
further stay, remarking that none of the young people intended to
move till after twelfth-night, nevertheless he persisted. With
the young people of the house themselves he had not much advanced
himself; and altogether he did not find himself thoroughly happy in
the judge's house. They were more thoughtless than he--as he thought;
they did not understand him, and therefore he would leave them.
Besides, there was a great day of hunting coming on, at which
everybody was to take a part, and as he did not hunt that gave
him another reason for going. "They have nothing to do but amuse
themselves," he said to himself; "but I have a man's work before me,
and a man's misfortunes. I will go home and face both."

In all this there was much of conceit, much of pride, much of
deficient education,--deficiency in that special branch of education
which England has imparted to the best of her sons, but which
is now becoming out of fashion. He had never learned to measure
himself against others,--I do not mean his knowledge or his
book-acquirements, but the every-day conduct of his life,--and
to perceive that that which is insignificant in others must be
insignificant in himself also. To those around him at Noningsby his
extensive reading respecting the Iapetidae recommended him not at all,
nor did his agricultural ambitions;--not even to Felix Graham, as a
companion, though Felix Graham could see further into his character
than did the others. He was not such as they were. He had not