such a settlement.

She liked Denas, and she did not wish to be the means of giving her a
heartache or a disappointment. But she liked her as a friend and
companion, not as a probable sister. Mr. Tresham in the days of his
commercial glory had once been Lord Mayor of London. Mrs. Tresham had
been "presented," and the grand house and magnificent entertainments
of the Treshams were chronicled in newspapers, which Elizabeth highly
valued and carefully treasured. She had also her full share of that
all-pervading spirit of caste which divides English society into
innumerable circles, and though she did not dislike the tacit offence
she gave to the St. Penfer young ladies by selecting a companion not
in their ranks, she was always ready to defend her friendship for
Denas by an exaggerated description of her many fine qualities. On
this subject she could air the extreme social views which she heard
from Roland, and which she always passionately opposed when Roland
advocated them; but she was not any more ready to put her ideas of an
equality based on personal desert into practice than was the most
bigoted aristocrat of her acquaintance.

There was also another motive for her care of Denas, a strong one,
though Elizabeth's mind barely recognised its existence. John
Penelles, though only a fisher, was a man who had influence and who
had saved money. Once when Mr. Tresham had been in a great strait for
cash, Penelles, remembering Denas, had cheerfully loaned him a hundred
pounds. Elizabeth recollected her father's anxiety and his relief and
gratitude, and a friend who will open, not his heart or his house, but
his purse, is a rare good friend, one not to be lightly wronged or
lost. Besides these reasons, there were many smaller ones, arising out
of petty social likes and dislikes and jealousies, which made Miss
Tresham determined to keep Denas Penelles precisely in the position to
which she had at first admitted her--that of a friend and companion.

To visitors she often used the adjective "humble" before the noun
"friend," glossing it with a somewhat exaggerated account of Denas and
their relationship, but with Denas herself she never thought of such
qualification. Denas had all the native independence of her class--the
fisher class, who neither sow nor reap, but take their living direct
from the hand of God. She was proud of her father, and proud of his
boats, and proud of his skill in managing them. She said, whenever she