l Fletcher; and you yourself will think so
soon. May I come in?"

My father made no answer, and I brought John in as usual. In truth, we
had both more to think of than Abel Fletcher's temporary displeasure.
This strange chance--what might it imply?--to what might it not lead?
But no: if I judged Mrs. Jessop aright, it neither implied, nor would
lead to, what I saw John's fancy had at once sprang toward, and
revelled in, madly. A lover's fancy--a lover's hope. Even I could see
what will-o'-the-wisps they were.

But the doctor's good wife, Ursula March's wise governess, would never
lure a young man with such phantoms as these. I felt
sure--certain--that if we met the Brithwoods we should meet no one
else. Certain, even when, as we sat at our dish of tea, there came in
two little dainty notes--the first invitations to worldly festivity
that had ever tempted our Quaker household, and which Jael flung out of
her fingers as if they had been coals from Gehenna. Notes, bidding us
to a "little supper" at Dr. Jessop's, with Mr. and Lady Caroline
Brithwood, of the Mythe House.

"Give them to your father, Phineas." And John vainly tried to hide the
flash of his eye--the smiles that came and went like summer
lightning--"To-morrow--you see, it is to-morrow."

Poor lad! he had forgotten every worldly thing in the hope of that
to-morrow.

My father's sharp voice roused him. "Phineas, thee'lt stay at home.
Tell the woman I say so."

"And John, father?"

"John may go to ruin if he chooses. He is his own master."

"I have been always." And the answer came less in pride than sadness.
"I might have gone to ruin years ago, but for the mercy of Heaven and
your kindness. Do not let us be at warfare now."

"All thy own fault, lad. Why cannot thee keep in thy own rank? Respect
thyself. Be an honest tradesman, as I have been."

"And as I trust always to be. But that is only my calling, not me.
I--John Halifax--am just the same, whether in the tan-yard or Dr.
Jessop's drawing-room. The one position cannot degrade, nor the other
elevate, me. I should not 'respect myself' if I believed otherwise."

"Eh?"--my father absolutely dropped his pipe in amazement. "Then, thee
thinkest thyself already quite a gentleman?"

"As I told you before, sir--I hope I am."

"Fit to associate with the finest folk in the land?"

"If they desire it, and I choose it, certainly."

Now, Abel Fletcher, like all honest men, liked honesty;