respect Flora for perceiving his solid qualities."

"Very solid and weighty, indeed!" said Ethel ironically. "I wonder if
she would have seen them in a poor curate."

"Ethel, you are allowing yourself to be carried, by prejudice, a
great deal too far. Are such imputations to be made, wherever there is
inequality of means? It is very wrong! very unjust!"

"So papa said," replied Ethel, as she looked sorrowfully down. "He was
very angry with me for saying so. I wish I could help feeling as if that
were the temptation."

"You ought," said Norman. "You will be sorry, if you set yourself, and
him, against it."

"I only wish you to know what I feel; and, I think, Margaret and papa
do," said Ethel humbly; "and then you will not think us more unjust than
we are. We cannot see anything so agreeable or suitable in this man as
to account for Flora's liking, and we do not feel convinced of his being
good for much. That makes papa greatly averse to it, though he does not
know any positive reason for refusing; and we cannot feel certain that
she is doing quite right, or for her own happiness."

"You will be convinced," said Norman cheerfully. "You will find out the
good that is under the surface when you have seen more of him. I have
had a good deal of talk with him."

A good deal of talk to him would have been more correct, if Norman
had but been aware of it. He had been at the chief expense of the
conversation with George Rivers, and had taken the sounds of assent,
which he obtained, as evidences of his appreciation of all his views.
Norman had been struggling so long against his old habit of looking down
on Richard, and exalting intellect; and had seen, in his Oxford life, so
many ill-effects of the knowledge that puffeth up, that he had come
to have a certain respect for dullness, per se, of which George Rivers
easily reaped the benefit, when surrounded by the halo, which everything
at Abbotstoke Grange bore in the eyes of Norman.

He was heartily delighted at the proposed connection, and his genuine
satisfaction not only gratified Flora, and restored the equanimity that
had been slightly disturbed by her father, but it also reassured Ethel
and Margaret, who could not help trusting in his judgment, and began to
hope that George might be all he thought him.

Ethel, finding that there were two ways of viewing the gentleman,
doubted whether she ought to express her opinion. It was Flora's
disposition, and the advantages