a more patient audience. Hester made many discoveries
about herself during the first months of her life at Warpington, and the
first of the series amazed her more than any of the later ones.

She discovered that she was proud. Perhaps she had not the enormous
opinion of herself which Mrs. Gresley so frequently deplored, for
Hester's thoughts seldom dwelt upon herself. But the altered
circumstances of her life forced them momentarily upon herself
nevertheless, as a burst pipe will spread its waters down a damask
curtain.

So far, during the eight years since she had left the school-room, she
had always been "Miss Gresley," a little personage treated with
consideration wherever she went, and _choyee_ for her delicate humor and
talent for conversation. She now experienced the interesting sensation,
as novel to her as it is familiar to most of us, of being nobody, and
she disliked it. The manners of the set in which she found herself also
grated continually on her fastidious taste. She was first amazed and
then indignant at hearing her old Middleshire friends, whose simplicity
far surpassed that of her new acquaintance, denounced by the
latter--without being acquainted with them except officially--as "fine,"
as caring only for "London people," and as being "tuft-hunters," because
they frequently entertained at their houses persons of rank, to half of
whom they were related. All this was new to Hester. She discovered that,
though she might pay visits at these houses, she must never mention
them, as it was considered the height of vulgarity to speak of people of
rank.

Mrs. Gresley, who had been quite taken aback when the first of these
invitations came, felt it her duty to warn Hester against a love of
rank, reminding her that it was a very bad thing to get a name for
running after titled people.

"James and I have always kept clear of that," she remarked, with
dignity. "For my part, I dare say you will think me very old-fashioned,
but I must own I never can see that people with titles or wealth are one
bit nicer or pleasanter than those without them."

Hester agreed.

"And," continued Mrs. Gresley, "it has always been our aim to be
independent, not to bow down before any one. If I am unworldly, it is
because I had the advantage of parents who impressed on me the
hollowness of all social distinctions. If the Pratts were given a title
to-morrow I should behave exactly the same to them as I do now."

If Lady Susan Gr