y honest tradespeople. I
say honest, and they are not ashamed of me; I say tradespeople, and I'm
not ashamed of them. My sister married and settled at a distance. I took
her son to educate and bring up. But I did not tell her where he was,
nor even that I had returned from America; I wished to choose my own
time for that, when I could give her the surprise, not only of a rich
brother, but of a son whom I intended to make a gentleman, so far as
manners and education can make one. Well, the poor dear woman has found
me out sooner than I expected, and turned the tables on me by giving me
a surprise of her own invention. Pray, forgive the confusion this little
family-scene has created; and though I own it was very laughable at the
moment, and I was wrong to say otherwise, yet I am sure I don't judge
ill of your good hearts, when I ask you to think what brother and sister
must feel who parted from each other when they were boy and girl. To
me" (and Richard gave a great gulp, for he felt that a great gulp alone
could swallow the abominable lie he was about to utter)--"to me this has
been a very happy occasion! I'm a plain man: no one can take ill what
I've said. And wishing that you may be all as happy in your family as I
am in mine--humble though it be--I beg to drink your very good healths!"

There was a universal applause when Richard sat down; and so well in
his plain way had he looked the thing, and done the thing, that at least
half of those present--who till then had certainly disliked and half
despised him--suddenly felt that they were proud of his acquaintance.
For however aristocratic this country of ours may be, and however
especially aristocratic be the genteeler classes in provincial towns and
coteries, there is nothing which English folks, from the highest to the
lowest, in their hearts so respect as a man who has risen from nothing,
and owns it frankly. Sir Compton Delaval, an old baronet, with a
pedigree as long as a Welshman's, who had been reluctantly decoyed to
the feast by his three unmarried daughters--not one of whom, however,
had hitherto condescended even to bow to the host--now rose. It was his
right,--he was the first person there in rank and station.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," quoth Sir Compton Delaval, "I am sure that I
express the feelings of all present when I say that we have heard with
great delight and admiration the words addressed to us by our excellent
host. [Applause.] And if any of us, in w