looked annoyed.

'Never mind, Jem,' said Louis, who had thrown himself at full length on
the sofa, 'she deserves compensation. Let it fizz.'

'And undo everything! What do you say to that, Mary?'

'Mary is to say nothing,' said Louis, 'I mean that poor child to have
her swing.'

'I shall leave you and James to settle that,' said Mary, quitting them.

'I am very anxious that Clara should form a friendship with Mary,' said
James, gravely.

'Friendships can't be crammed down people's throats,' said Louis, in a
weary indifferent tone.

'You who have been three months with Mary--!'

'Mary and I did not meet with labels round our necks that here were a
pair of friends. Pray do you mean to send that victim of yours back to
school?'

'Don't set her against it. I have been telling her of the necessity
all the way home.'

'Is it not to be taken into consideration that a bad--not to say a
base-style of girl seems to prevail there?'

'I can't help it, Fitzjocelyn,' cried Jem, ruffling up his hair, as he
always did when vexed. 'Girls fit to be her companions don't go to
school--or to no school within my means. This place has sound
superiors, and she _must_ be provided with a marketable stock of
accomplishments, so there's no choice. I can trust her not to forget
that she is a Dynevor.'

'Query as to the benefit of that recollection.'

'What do you mean?'

'That I never saw evils lessened by private self-exaltation.'

'Very philosophical! but as a matter of fact, what was it but the sense
of my birth that kept me out of all the mischief I was exposed to at
the Grammar School!'

'I always thought it had been something more respectable,' said Louis,
his voice growing more sleepy.

'Pshaw! Primary motives being understood, secondary stand common wear
the best.'

'As long as they don't eat into the primary.'

'The long and short of it is,' exclaimed James, impatiently, 'that we
must have no nonsense about Clara. It is pain enough to me to inflict
all this on her, but I would not do it, if I thought it were more than
mere discomfort. Her principles are fixed, she is above these
trumperies. But you have the sense to see that her whole welfare may
depend on whether she gets fitted to be a valuable accomplished
governess or a mere bonne, tossed about among nursery-maids. There's
where poverty galls! Don't go and set my grandmother on! If she grew
wretched and took Clara away, it would be mere condemni