my part, I don't think the Littlepages
are a bit better than the Newcomes, though I won't liken them to some I
could name at Ravensnest; but I don't think they are any better than
you, yourself; and why should they ask so much more of the law than
other folks?"

"I am not aware that they do ask more of the law than others; and, if
they do, I'm sure they obtain less. The law in this country is virtually
administered by jurors, who take good care to graduate justice, so far
as they can, by a scale suited to their own opinions, and, quite often,
to their prejudices. As the last are so universally opposed to persons
in Mrs. Littlepage's class in life, if there be a chance to make her
suffer, it is pretty certain it will be improved."

"Sen says he can't see why he should pay rent to a Littlepage, any more
than a Littlepage should pay rent to him."

"I am sorry to hear it, since there is a very sufficient reason for the
former, and no reason at all for the latter. Your brother uses the land
of Mr. Littlepage, and that is a reason why he should pay him rent. If
the case were reversed, then, indeed, Mr. Littlepage should pay rent to
your brother."

"But what reason is there that these Littlepages should go on from
father to son, from generation to generation, as our landlords, when
we're just as good as they. It's time there was some change. Besides,
only think, we've been at the mills, now, hard upon eighty years,
grandpa having first settled there; and we have had them very mills,
now, for three generations among us."

"High time, therefore, Opportunity, that there should be some change,"
put in Mary, with a demure smile.

"Oh! you're so intimate with Marthy Littlepage, I'm not surprised at
anything _you_ think or say. But reason is reason, for all that. I
haven't the least grudge in the world against young Hugh Littlepage; if
foreign lands haven't spoilt him, as they say they're desperate apt to
do, he's an agreeable young gentleman, and I can't say that _he_ used to
think himself any better than other folks."

"I should say none of the family are justly liable to the charge of so
doing," returned Mary.

"Well, I'm amazed to hear you say _that_, Mary Warren. To my taste,
Marthy Littlepage is as disagreeable as she can be. If the anti-rent
cause had nobody better than she is to oppose it, it would soon
triumph."

"May I ask, Miss Newcome, what particular reason you have for so
thinking?" asked Mr. Warren, who had