ngs; monasteries
and so on; the influence of the old church system on the happiness and
comfort of the People."

"And on the tone of the Nobles--do not you think so?" said Lady Maud. "I
know it is the fashion to deride the crusades, but do not you think
they had their origin in a great impulse, and in a certain sense, led
to great results? Pardon me, if I speak with emphasis, but I never can
forget I am a daughter of the first crusaders."

"The tone of society is certainly lower than of yore," said Egremont.
"It is easy to say we view the past through a fallacious medium. We have
however ample evidence that men feel less deeply than of old and
act with less devotion. But how far is this occasioned by the modern
position of our church? That is the question."

"You must speak to Mr St Lys about that," said Lady Maud. "Do you know
him?" she added in a lowered tone.

"No; is he here?"

"Next to mamma."

And looking in that direction, on the left hand of Lady Mowbray,
Egremont beheld a gentleman in the last year of his youth, if youth
according to the scale of Hippocrates cease at thirty-five. He was
distinguished by that beauty of the noble English blood, of which in
these days few types remain; the Norman tempered by the Saxon; the fire
of conquest softened by integrity; and a serene, though inflexible habit
of mind. The chains of convention, an external life grown out of
all proportion with that of the heart and mind, have destroyed this
dignified beauty. There is no longer in fact an aristocracy in England,
for the superiority of the animal man is an essential quality of
aristocracy. But that it once existed, any collection of portraits from
the sixteenth century will show.

Aubrey St Lys was a younger son of the most ancient Norman family in
England. The Conqueror had given them the moderate estate on which they
now lived, and which, in spite of so many civil conflicts and religious
changes, they had handed down to each other, from generation to
generation, for eight centuries. Aubrey St Lys was the vicar of Mowbray.
He had been the college tutor of the late Lord Fitz-Warene, whose mind
he had formed, whose bright abilities he had cultivated, who adored him.
To that connection he owed the slight preferment which he possessed, but
which was all he desired. A bishopric would not have tempted him from
his peculiar charge.

In the centre of the town of Mowbray teeming with its toiling thousands,
there rose a buil