pleasant phrase is that same one "just to ourselves;" but Mr. Hankes
employed it like many other people, and never saw its absurdity.

Now, Sybella Kellett fancied that justice had a twofold obligation,
and found herself very often the advocate of the poor man, patiently
sustaining his rights, and demanding their recognition. Confidence, we
are told by a great authority, is a plant of slow growth, and yet she
acquired it in the end. The peasantry submitted to her claims the most
complex and involved; they brought their quaint old contracts, half
illegible by time and neglect; they recited, and confirmed by oral
testimony, the strangest possible of tenures; they recounted long
narratives of how they succeeded to this holding, and what claims they
could prefer to that; histories that would have worn out almost any
human patience to hear, and especially trying to one whose apprehension
was of the quickest. And yet she would listen to the very end, make
herself master of the case, and give it a deep and full consideration.
This done, she decided; and to that decision none ever objected.
Whatever her decree, it was accepted as just and fair, and even if a
single disappointed or discontented suitor could have been found, he
would have shrunk from avowing himself the opponent of public opinion.

It was, however, by the magic of her sympathy, by the secret charm of
understanding their natures, and participating in every joy and sorrow
of their hearts, that she gained her true ascendancy over them. There
was nothing feigned or factitious in her feeling for them; it was not
begotten of that courtly tact which knows names by heart, remembers
little family traits, and treasures up an anecdote; it was true,
heart-felt, honest interest in their welfare. She had watched them long
and closely; she knew that the least amiable trait in their natures was
also that which oftenest marred their fortunes,--distrust; and she set
herself vigorously to work to uproot this vile, pernicious weed, the
most noxious that ever poisoned the soil of a human heart. By her own
truthful dealings with them she inspired truth, by _her_ fairness she
exacted fairness, and by the straightforward honesty of her words and
actions they grew to learn how far easier and pleasanter could be the
business of life where none sought to overreach his neighbor.

[Illustration: 175]

To such an extent had her influence spread that it became at last
well-nigh impossible t