such as you and
such as we. Lords and ladies, earls and countesses, are our enemies,
and we are theirs. We may make their robes and take their money, and
deal with them as the Jew dealt with the Christians in the play; but
we cannot eat with them or drink with them."

"How often have I eaten and drank at your table, when no other table
was spread for me?"

"You were a Jew almost as ourselves then. We cannot now well stand
shoulder to shoulder and arm to arm as friends should do."

"How often has my child lain in your arms when she was a baby, and
been quieter there than she would be even in her mother's?"

"That has all gone by. Other arms will be open to receive her." As
the tailor said this he remembered how his boy used to take the
little child out to the mountain side, and how the two would ramble
away together through the long summer evenings; and he reflected that
the memory of those days was no doubt still strong in the heart of
his son. Some shadow of the grief which would surely fall upon the
young man now fell upon the father, and caused him almost to repent
of the work of his life. "Tailors should consort with tailors," he
said, "and lords and ladies should consort together."

Something of the same feeling struck the Countess also. If it were
not for the son, the father, after all that he had done for them,
might be almost as near and as dear to them as ever. He might have
called the Lady Anna by her Christian name, at any rate till she had
been carried away as a bride by the Earl. But, though all this was so
exquisitely painful, it had been absolutely necessary to check the
son. "Ah, well," she said; "it is hardly to be hoped that so many
crooked things should be made straight without much pain. If you
knew, Mr. Thwaite, how little it is that I expect for myself!"

"It is because I have known it that I am here."

"It will be well for her,--will it not,--to be the wife of her
cousin?"

"If he be a good man. A woman will not always make herself happy by
marrying an Earl."

"How many daggers you can use, Mr. Thwaite! But this young man is
good. You yourself have said that you have heard so."

"I have heard nothing to the contrary, my lady."

"And what shall I do?"

"Just explain it all to Lady Anna. I think it will be clear then."

"You believe that she will be so easily pleased?"

"Why should she not be pleased? She'll have some maiden scruples,
doubtless. What maid would not? But she'll exul