ood morning,
mother. I am going to disgrace the family by my marriage, but I
know you will be delighted---good morning.'"

"You forget that Dent does not think he will disgrace the family.
He said you would be proud of her."

"Well, when the day comes for me to be proud of this, there will
not be much left to be ashamed of. Rowan, for once I shall
interfere."

"How can you interfere?"

"Then you must: you are his guardian."

"I shall not be his guardian by the autumn. Dent has arranged this
perfectly, mother, as he always arranges everything."

She returned to her point. "But he _must_ be kept from making such
a mistake! Talk to him as a man. Advise him, show him that he
will tie a millstone around his neck, ruin his whole life. I am
willing to leave myself out and to forget what is due me, what is
due you, what is due the memory of his father and of my father: for
his own sake he must not marry this girl."

He shook his head slowly. "It is settled, mother," he added
consolingly, "and I have so much confidence in Dent that I believe
what he says: we shall be proud of her when we know her."

She sat awhile in despair. Then she said with fresh access of
conviction: "This is what comes of so much science: it always tends
to make a man common in his social tastes. You need not smile at
me in that pitying way, for it is true: it destroys aristocratic
feeling; and there is more need of aristocratic feeling in a
democracy than anywhere else: because it is the only thing that can
be aristocratic. That is what science has done for Dent! And this
girl I--the public school has tried to make her uncommon, and the
Girl's College has attempted, to make her more uncommon; and now I
suppose she actually thinks she _is_ uncommon: otherwise she would
never have imagined that she could marry a son of mine. Smile on,
I know I amuse you! You think I am not abreast of the times. I am
glad I am not. I prefer my own. Dent should have studied for the
church--with his love of books, and his splendid mind, and his
grave, beautiful character. Then he would never have thought of
marrying beneath him socially; he would have realized that if he
did, he could never rise. Once in the church and with the right
kind of wife, he might some day have become a bishop: I have always
wanted a bishop in the family. But he set his heart upon a
professorship, and I suppose a professor does not have to be
particular about whom he ma