has of
course expected also that her word should be law to others. He has
yielded to her in all things, and attended to her will as though she
were a little queen, recognizing in her feminine weakness a sovereign
power, as some men can and do; and having thus for years indulged
himself in a quixotic gallantry to the lady of his household, he has
demanded of others that they also should bow the knee.

During the last twenty years The Cleeve has not been a gay house.
During the last ten those living there have been contented, and in
the main happy; but there has seldom been many guests in the old
hall, and Sir Peregrine has not been fond of going to other men's
feasts. He inherited the property very early in life, and then there
were on it some few encumbrances. While yet a young man he added
something to these, and now, since his own son's death, he has been
setting his house in order, that his grandson should receive the
family acres intact. Every shilling due on the property has been paid
off; and it is well that this should be so, for there is reason to
fear that the heir will want a helping hand out of some of youth's
difficulties,--perhaps once or twice before his passion for rats
gives place to a good English gentleman-like resolve to hunt twice a
week, look after his timber, and live well within his means.

The chief fault in the character of young Peregrine Orme was that
he was so young. There are men who are old at one-and-twenty,--are
quite fit for Parliament, the magistrate's bench, the care of a wife,
and even for that much sterner duty, the care of a balance at the
bankers; but there are others who at that age are still boys,--whose
inner persons and characters have not begun to clothe themselves with
the "toga virilis." I am not sure that those whose boyhoods are so
protracted have the worst of it, if in this hurrying and competitive
age they can be saved from being absolutely trampled in the dust
before they are able to do a little trampling on their own account.
Fruit that grows ripe the quickest is not the sweetest; nor when
housed and garnered will it keep the longest. For young Peregrine
there was no need of competitive struggles. The days have not yet
come, though they are no doubt coming, when "detur digniori" shall
be the rule of succession to all titles, honours, and privileges
whatsoever. Only think what a life it would give to the education of
the country in general, if any lad from seventeen t