e could see people
pleasant and laughing, that was all that he wanted. It is hard to say
what is best."

"Papa is as good to us as ever he can be."

"So was my papa good to me,--in his way; but, oh dear, the people
that used to come there! Poor papa! He used to say that hospitality
was his chief duty. I sometimes used to think that the world
would be much pleasanter and better if there was no such thing as
hospitality;--if people always eat and drank alone, and lived as
uncle does, in his chambers. There would not be so much money wasted,
at any rate."

"Papa never wastes any money," said Patience,--"though there never
was a more generous man."

Ralph Newton,--Ralph of the Priory,--came to dinner, and Miss Spooner
was asked to meet him. It might have been supposed that a party
so composed would not have been very bright, but the party at the
villa went off very satisfactorily. Ralph made himself popular with
everybody. He became very popular with Sir Thomas by the frank and
easy way in which he spoke of the family difficulties at Newton. "I
wish my namesake knew my father," he said, when he was alone with the
lawyer after dinner. He never spoke of either of these Newtons as his
cousins, though to Gregory, whom he knew well and loved dearly, he
would declare that from him he felt entitled to exact all the dues of
cousinship.

"It would be desirable," said Sir Thomas.

"I never give it up. You know my father, I dare say. He thought
his brother interfered with him, and I suppose he did. But a more
affectionate or generous man never lived. He is quite as fond of
Gregory as he is of me, and would do anything on earth that Gregory
told him. He is rebuilding the chancel of the church just because
Gregory wishes it. Some day I hope they may be reconciled."

"It is hard to get over money difficulties," said Sir Thomas.

"I don't see why there should be money difficulties," said Ralph. "As
far as I am concerned there need be none."

"Ralph Newton has made money difficulties," said Sir Thomas. "If
he had been careful with his own fortune there would have been no
question as to the property between him and your father."

"I can understand that;--and I can understand also my father's
anxiety, though I do not share it. It would be better that my
namesake should have the estate. I can see into these matters quite
well enough to know that were it to be mine there would occur exactly
that which my father wishes to avoid. I