e.

'No, sir, or he would never darken my doorway,' exclaimed this more than
Roman father. 'But he is engaged, and I can never give my consent; and
if he marries that girl, the firm ceases to be "Warren & Son, wax-cloth
manufacturers." That's all, sir--that's all.'

Mr. Warren again applied his red handkerchief to his glowing features.

'And what, may I ask, are the grounds of your objection to this
engagement? Social inequality?' asked Merton.

'No, the young lady is the daughter of one of our leading ministers, Mr.
Truman--author of _The Bishops to the Block_--but principles are
concerned.'

'You cannot mean that the young lady is excessively addicted to the--wine
cup?' asked Merton gravely. 'In melancholy cases of that kind Mr. Hall
Caine, in a romance, has recommended hypnotic treatment, but we do not
venture to interfere.'

'You misunderstand me, sir,' replied Mr. Warren, frowning. 'The young
woman, on principle, as they call it, has never been vaccinated. Like
most of our prominent citizens, her father (otherwise an excellent man)
objects to what he calls "The Worship of the Calf" on grounds of
conscience.'

'Conscience! It is a hard thing to constrain the conscience,' murmured
Merton, quoting a remark of Queen Mary to John Knox.

'What is conscience without knowledge, sir?' asked the client,
using--without knowing it--the very argument of Mr. Knox to the Queen.

'You have no other objections to the alliance?' asked Merton.

'None whatever, sir. She is a good and good-looking girl. On most
important points we are thoroughly agreed. She won a prize essay on
Bacon's authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Of course Shakespeare could
not have written them--a thoroughly uneducated man, who never could have
passed the fourth standard. But look at the plays! There are things in
them that, with all our modern advantages, are beyond me. I admit they
are beyond me. "To be, and to do, and to suffer,"' declaimed Mr. Warren,
apparently under the impression that this is part of Hamlet's
soliloquy--'Shakespeare could never have written _that_. Where did _he_
learn grammar?'

'Where, indeed?' replied Merton. 'But as the lady is in all other
respects so suitable a match, cannot this one difficulty be got over?'

'Impossible, sir; my son could not slice the sleeve in her dress and
inflict this priceless boon on her with affectionate violence. Even the
hero of _Dr. Therne_ failed there--'

'And rather i