ries," he had not quite been able to contradict him. He had
wished to do so both in defence of his own consistency, and also,
if it were possible, so as to maintain the sanctity. The "divinity"
which "does hedge a king," had been to him no more than a social
idolatry. The special respect in which dukes and such like were
held was the same. The judge's ermine and the bishop's apron were
idolatries. Any outward honour, not earned by the deeds or words of
him so honoured, but coming from birth, wealth, or from the doings
of another, was an idolatry. Carrying on his arguments, he could not
admit the same thing in reference to his sister;--or rather, he would
have to admit it if he could not make another plea in defence of
the sanctity. His sister was very holy to him;--but that should be
because of her nearness to him, because of her sweetness, because
of her own gifts, because as her brother he was bound to be her
especial knight till she should have chosen some other special knight
for herself. But it should not be because she was the daughter,
granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of dukes and marquises. It
should not be because she was Lady Frances Trafford. Had he himself
been a Post Office clerk, then would not this chosen friend have been
fit to love her? There were unfitnesses, no doubt, very common in
this world, which should make the very idea of love impossible to a
woman,--unfitness of character, of habits, of feelings, of education,
unfitnesses as to inward personal nobility. He could not say that
there were any such which ought to separate his sister and his
friend. If it was to be that this sweet sister should some day give
her heart to a lover, why not to George Roden as well as to another?
There were no such unfitnesses as those of which he would have
thought in dealing with the lives of some other girl and some other
young man.

And yet he was, if not displeased, at any rate dissatisfied.
There was something which grated against either his taste, or his
judgment,--or perhaps his prejudices. He endeavoured to inquire into
himself fairly on this matter, and feared that he was yet the victim
of the prejudices of his order. He was wounded in his pride to think
that his sister should make herself equal to a clerk in the Post
Office. Though he had often endeavoured, only too successfully, to
make her understand how little she had in truth received from her
high birth, yet he felt that she had received somethin