reply, gravely
spoken. "Miss Doran is a young woman of her time; she ranks with the
emancipated; she is as far above the Girton girl as that interesting
creature is above the product of an establishment for young ladies.
Miss Doran has no prejudices, and, in the vulgar sense of the word, no
principles. She is familiar with the Latin classics and with the
Parisian feuilletons; she knows all about the newest religion, and can
tell you Sarcey's opinion of the newest play. Miss Doran will discuss
with you the merits of Sarah Bernhardt in 'La Dame aux Camelias,' or
the literary theories of the brothers Goncourt. I am not sure that she
knows much about Shakespeare, but her appreciation of Baudelaire is
exquisite. I don't think she is naturally very cruel, but she can plead
convincingly the cause of vivisection. Miss Doran--"

Spence interrupted him with a burst of laughter.

"All which, my dear fellow, simply means that you--"

Mallard, in his turn, interrupted gruffly.

"Precisely: that I am the wrong man to hold even the position of
steward to one so advanced. What have I to do with heiresses and
fashionable ladies? I have my work to get on with, and it shall not
suffer from the intrusion of idlers."

"I see you direct your diatribe half against Mrs. Lessingham. How has
she annoyed you?"

"Annoyed me? You never were more mistaken. It's with myself that I am
annoyed."

"On what account?"

"For being so absurd as to question sometimes whether my responsibility
doesn't extend beyond stock and share. I ask myself whether Doran--who
so befriended me, and put such trust in me, and paid me so well in
advance for the duties I was to undertake--didn't take it for granted
that I should exercise some influence in the matter of his daughter's
education? Is she growing up what he would have wished her to be? And
if--"

"Why, it's no easy thing to say what views he had on this subject. The
lax man, we know, is often enough severe with his own womankind. But as
you have given me no description of what Cecily really is, I can offer
no judgment. Wait till I have seen her. Doubtless she fulfils her
promise of being beautiful?"

"Yes; there is no denying her beauty."

"As for her _modonite_, why, Mr. Ross Mallard is a singular person to
take exception on that score."

"I don't know about that. When did I say that the modern woman was my
ideal?"

"When had you ever a good word for the system which makes of woman a
dummy and