ensee_, he meant what he said, and was ready to believe that
other people meant it too. He had a pleasant and courteous manner in
society, and liked to be on friendly terms with every one he met; but at
the same time he was not at all like the ordinary society man, and had
not the slightest idea that he differed from any such person--as indeed
he did. He had very high aims and ideals, and he took it for granted,
with a really charming simplicity, that other people had similar aims
and similar (if not higher) ideals. Consequently he now and then ran his
head against a wall, and was laughed at by commonplace persons; but
those who knew him well loved him all the better for his impracticable
schemes and expectations.

But to Margaret he seemed rather like a firebrand. He took interest in
things of which she had never heard, or which she regarded with a little
delicate disdain. A steam-laundry in Beaminster, for example--what had a
man like Sir Philip Ashley to do with a steam-laundry? And yet he was
establishing one in the old city, and actually assuring people that it
would "pay." He had been exerting himself about the drainage of the
place and the dwellings of the poor. Margaret was sorry in a vague way
for the poor, and supposed that drainage had to be "seen to" from time
to time, but she did not want to hear anything about it. She liked the
pretty little cottages in the village of Helmsley, and she did not mind
begging for a holiday for the school children (who adored her) now and
then; and she had heard with pleasure of Lady Ashley's pattern
alm-houses and dainty orphanage, where the old women wore red cloaks,
and the children were exceedingly picturesque; but as a necessary
consequence of her life-training, she did not want to know anything
about disease or misery or sin. And Sir Philip could not entirely keep
these subjects out of his conversation, although he tried to be very
careful not to bring a look that he knew well--a look of shocked
repulsion and dislike--to Margaret's tranquil face.

She welcomed him with her usual sweetness that afternoon. He thought
that she looked lovelier than ever. The day was cold, and she wore a
dark-green dress with a good deal of gold embroidery about it, which
suited her perfectly. Lady Caroline, too, was graciousness itself. She
received him in her own little sitting-room--a gem of a room into which
only her intimate friends were admitted, and made him welcome with all
the charm