the people. I am a stranger, and I don't think I am very apt
at making humble friends. To enjoy the life one ought to begin one's
apprenticeship early. I wonder why anybody strains after rank and
riches? I find them no gain at all. I still think Mr. Carnegie the best
gentleman I know, and his wife as true a gentlewoman as any. You are
smiling at my partiality. Shall you be shocked if I add that I have met
in Woldshire grand people who, if they were not known by their titles,
would be reckoned amongst the very vulgar, and gentry of old extraction
who bear no brand of it but that disagreeable manner which is qualified
as high-bred insolence?"

Mrs. Stokes held all the conventionalities in sincere respect. She did
not understand Miss Fairfax, and asked who, then, of their acquaintance
was her pattern of a perfect lady. Bessie instanced Miss Burleigh. "Her
sweet graciousness is never at fault, because it is the flower of her
beautiful disposition," said she.

"I should never have thought of her," said Mrs. Stokes reflectively.
"She is very good. But to go back to those boys: do nothing without
first speaking to Mr. Fairfax."

Bessie demurred, and still believed her own bolder device the best, but
she allowed herself to be overruled, and watched for an opportunity of
speaking. Undoubtedly, Mr. Fairfax loved his granddaughter with more
respect for her independent will than he might have done had they been
together always. He had denied her no reasonable request yet, and he
granted her present prayer so readily that she was only sorry she had
not preferred it earlier.

"Grandpapa, you will give me a Christmas gift, will you not?" she said
one evening after dinner about a week before that festive season.

"Yes, Elizabeth. What would you like?" was his easy reply. It was a
satisfaction to hear that she had a wish.

"I should like to have my two little cousins from Norminster--Justus and
Laury. They would quite enliven us."

Mr. Fairfax was evidently taken by surprise. Still, he did not rebuke
her audacity. He was silent for a minute or two, as if reflecting, and
when he answered her it was with all the courtesy that he could have
shown towards a guest for whose desires he was bound to feel the utmost
deference. "Certainly, Elizabeth," said he. "You have a right to be
here, as I told you at your first coming, and it would be hard that I
should forbid you any visitor that would enliven you. Have the little
boys, by all me