t
exaggerate.'

'Curious,' mused the other dispassionately, as she stood with one foot
on the fender. 'He hardly strikes one as that kind of man.

'Oh, he has certainly changed a great deal.'

Miss Barfoot went on to speak of her cousin's resolve to pursue no
calling.

'His means are very modest. I feel rather guilty before him; his father
bequeathed to me much of the money that would in the natural course
have been Everard's. But he is quite superior to any feeling of grudge
on that score.'

'Practically, his father disinherited him?'

'It amounted to that. From quite a child, Everard was at odds with his
father. A strange thing, for in so many respects they resembled each
other very closely. Physically, Everard is his father walking the earth
again. In character, too, I think they must be very much alike. They
couldn't talk about the simplest thing without disagreeing. My uncle
had risen from the ranks but he disliked to be reminded of it. He
disliked the commerce by which he made his fortune. His desire was to
win social position; if baronetcies could be purchased in our time, he
would have given a huge sum to acquire one. But he never distinguished
himself, and one of the reasons was, no doubt, that he married too
soon. I have heard him speak bitterly, and very indiscreetly, of early
marriages; his wife was dead then, but every one knew what he meant.
Rhoda, when one thinks how often a woman is a clog upon a man's
ambition, no wonder they regard us as they do.'

'Of course, women are always retarding one thing or another. But men
are intensely stupid not to have remedied that long ago.'

'He determined that his boys should be gentlemen. Tom, the elder,
followed his wishes exactly; he was remarkably clever, but idleness
spoilt him, and now he has made that ridiculous marriage--the end of
poor Tom. Everard went to Eton, and the school had a remarkable effect
upon him; it made him a furious Radical. Instead of imitating the young
aristocrats he hated and scorned them. There must have been great force
of originality in the boy. Of course I don't know whether any Etonians
of his time preached Radicalism, but it seems unlikely. I think it was
sheer vigour of character, and the strange desire to oppose his father
in everything. From Eton he was of course to pass to Oxford, but at
that stage came practical rebellion. No, said the boy; he wouldn't go
to a university, to fill his head with useless learning; he had m