just the very finest
thing a man can be. Why, what are half the nobility compared to us?
There are all sorts of people in the nobility,--people who have been in
trade, brewers and bankers and all sorts; even authors and those kind
of people. But I have always heard that an English country gentleman who
has been in the same position for hundreds of years--Why, Theo, there is
not such a position in the world! We are the bulwark of the country. We
are the support of the constitution. Where would the Queen be, or the
church, or anything, without the gentry? Why, Theo, an English country
gentleman----"

She paused from mere want of breath. On such a subject Miss Warrender
felt that words could never have failed; and she devoutly believed
everything she said.

"If he's so grand as that," said Theo, with a laugh, "what do you
suppose is the consequence of a little more Latin and Greek?"

Minnie would have said with all sincerity, Nothing at all; but she
paused, remembering that there were prejudices on this subject. "You
might as well say, What's the use of shoes and stockings," she said, "or
of nice, well-made clothes, such as a gentleman ought to wear? By the
bye, Mr. Cavendish, though I did not care so much for him this time
as the last, had his clothes very well made. Education is just like
well-made things," she added, with a sense that she had made, if not an
epigram, something very like it,--a phrase to be remembered and quoted
as summing up the discussion.

"If that's all," said Warrender, "I've got enough for that." The
reference to Cavendish and the epigram had cleared the atmosphere and
given a lighter tone to the family controversy, and the young man felt
that he had got over the crisis better than he hoped. He waved his hand
to Minnie amicably as he rose from the table. "I thank thee, Jew," he
said with a lighter tone and laugh than were at all usual with him, as
he went away. The ladies sat silent, listening to his steps as he went
through the hall, pausing to get his hat; and no one spoke till he
suddenly appeared again, crossing the lawn towards the gate that led
into the village. Then there was a simultaneous long breath of fulfilled
expectation, not to be called a sigh.

"Ah!" said Minnie, "I thought so. He always goes that way."

"It is the way that leads to all the places Theo would be likely to go
to."

"You mean it leads to Markland, mamma. Oh, I know very well what Theo
means. He thinks he is v