orget already, then, the speech with which he accosted us," said
she, haughtily; "but my memory is better, sir."

"His courtesy might have effaced the recollection, I think," said Fagan,
testily.

"His courtesy! Has he not told you himself that every gift he possesses
is but an emanation of his selfishness? The man who can be anything so
easily, will be nothing if it cost a sacrifice."

"I don't care what he is," said Fagan, in a low, distinct voice, as
though he wanted every word to be heard attentively. "For what he has
been, and what he will be, I care just as little. It is where he moves,
and lives, and exerts influence,--these are what concern me."

"Are the chance glimpses that we catch of that high world so attractive,
father?" said she, in an accent of almost imploring eagerness. "Do
they, indeed, requite us for the cost we pay for them? When we leave the
vulgar circle of our equals, is it to hear of generous actions, exalted
sentiments, high-souled motives; or is it not to find every vice that
stains the low pampered up into greater infamy amongst the noble?"

"This is romance and folly, girl. Who ever dreamed it should be
otherwise? Nature stamped no nobility on gold, nor made copper plebeian.
This has been the work of men; and so of the distinctions among
themselves, and it will not do for us to dispute the ordinance. Station
is power, wealth is power; he who has neither, is but a slave; he who
has both, may be all that he would be!"

A sudden gesture to enforce caution followed these words; and at
the same time MacNaghten's merry voice was heard, singing as he came
along,--

"'Kneel down there, and say a prayer,
Before my hounds shall eat you.'
'I have no prayer,' the Fox replied,
'For I was bred a Quaker.'

"All right, Miss Polly. Out of compliment to you, I suppose, Kitty
Dwyer, that would never suffer a collar over her head for the last six
weeks, has consented to be harnessed as gently as a lamb; and my own
namesake, 'Dan the Smasher,' has been traced up, without as much as one
strap broken. They 're a little pair I have been breaking in for Carew;
for he's intolerably lazy, and expects to find his nags trained to
perfection. Look at them, how they come along,--no bearing reins, no
blinkers. That 's what I call a very neat turn-out."

The praise was, assuredly, not unmerited, as two highbred black ponies
swept past with a beautiful phaeton, and drew up at the door of the
conservat