r nobility had hold of him next, and English
aristocracy received the paean. Lectures were addressed to democrats;
our House of Lords was pledged solemnly in reams of print. We were told
that 'blood' may always be betted on to win the race; blood that is blue
will beat the red hollow. Who could pretend to despise the honour of
admission to the ranks of the proudest peerage the world has known! Is
not a great territorial aristocracy the strongest guarantee of national
stability? The loudness of the interrogation, like the thunder of Jove,
precluded thought of an answer.

Mr. Bull, though he is not of lucid memory, kept an eye on the owner of
those millions. His bards were awake to his anxiety, and celebrated John
Mattock's doings with a trump and flourish somewhat displeasing to a
quietly-disposed commoner. John's entry into Parliament as a Liberal
was taken for a sign of steersman who knew where the tide ran. But
your Liberals are sometimes Radicals in their youth, and his choice
of parties might not be so much sagacity as an instance of unripe
lightheadedness. A young conservative millionaire is less disturbing.
The very wealthy young peer is never wanton in his politics, which seems
to admonish us that the heir of vast wealth should have it imposed on
him to accept a peerage, and be locked up as it were. A coronet steadies
the brain. You may let out your heels at the social laws, you are
almost expected to do it, but you are to shake that young pate of yours
restively under such a splendid encumbrance. Private reports of John,
however, gave him credit for sound opinions: he was moderate, merely
progressive. When it was added that the man had the habit of taking
counsel with his sister, he was at once considered as fast and safe, not
because of any public knowledge of the character of Jane Mattock. We pay
this homage to the settled common sense of women. Distinctly does
she discountenance leaps in the dark, wild driving, and the freaks of
Radicalism.

John, as it happened, had not so grave a respect for the sex as for the
individual Jane. He thought women capable of acts of foolishness; his
bright-faced sister he could thoroughly trust for prudent conduct. He
gave her a good portion of his heart in confidence, and all of it in
affection. There were matters which he excluded from confidence, even
from intimate communication with himself. These he could not reveal;
nor could she perfectly open her heart to him, for the