egarded themselves as immeasurably above him, and who, all question
of profit apart, would have hesitated at admitting him to their
acquaintance.

I tell you all these very commonplace truths, my dear Dorothy, because
they may not, indeed cannot, be such truisms to you--you, who live in
a grand old city, with noble traditions, and the refinements that come
transmitted from centuries of high habits; and I feel, as I write, how
puzzled you will often be to follow me. London was, as I have twice
said, our home; but for that very reason we could not be content with
it. Earlshope, by ill luck, was for sale, and we bought it. I am afraid
to tell you the height of our castle-building; but, as we were all
engaged, the work went on briskly, every day adding at least a story
to the edifice. We were to start as high sheriff, then represent the
county. I am not quite clear, I think we never settled the point as to
the lord-lieutenancy; but I know the exact way, and the very time, in
which we demanded our peerage. How we threatened to sulk, and did sulk;
how we actually sat a whole night on the back benches; and how we made
our eldest son dance twice with a daughter of the "Opposition,"--menaces
that no intelligent Cabinet or conscientious "Whip" could for a moment
misunderstand. And oh! my dear Dora, as I write these things, how
forcibly I feel the prudence of that step which once we all were so
ready to condemn you for having taken. You were indeed right to marry
a foreigner. That an English girl should address herself to the married
life of England, the first condition is she should never have left
England, not even for that holiday-trip to Paris and Switzerland, which
people now do, as once they were wont to "do Margate." The whole game of
existence is such a scramble with us: we scramble for social rank, for
place, for influence, for Court favor, for patronage; and all these call
for so much intrigue and plotting, that I vow to you I 'd as soon be
a Carbonara or a Sanfedista as the wife of an aspiring middle-class
Englishman.

But to return. The county would not have us--we were rich, and we were
City folk, and they deemed it an unpardonable pretension in us to come
down amongst them. They refused our invitations, and sent us none of
their own. We split with them, contested the election against them, and
got beaten. We spent unheard-of moneys, and bribed everybody that had
not a vote for ten miles round. With universal suffrag