nd
strength--came on in succession and carried with them in their deep,
fast flow the heart and mind of reader and listener.

"Now, have you felt Shakespeare?" asked Caroline, some ten minutes after
her cousin had closed the book.

"I think so."

"And have you felt anything in Coriolanus like you?"

"Perhaps I have."

"Was he not faulty as well as great?"

Moore nodded.

"And what was his fault? What made him hated by the citizens? What
caused him to be banished by his countrymen?"

"What do you think it was?"

"I ask again--

'Whether was it pride,
Which out of daily fortune ever taints
The happy man? whether defect of judgment,
To fail in the disposing of those chances
Which he was lord of? or whether nature,
Not to be other than one thing, not moving
From the casque to the cushion, but commanding peace
Even with the same austerity and garb
As he controlled the war?'"

"Well, answer yourself, Sphinx."

"It was a spice of all; and you must not be proud to your workpeople;
you must not neglect chances of soothing them; and you must not be of an
inflexible nature, uttering a request as austerely as if it were a
command."

"That is the moral you tack to the play. What puts such notions into
your head?"

"A wish for your good, a care for your safety, dear Robert, and a fear,
caused by many things which I have heard lately, that you will come to
harm."

"Who tells you these things?"

"I hear my uncle talk about you. He praises your hard spirit, your
determined cast of mind, your scorn of low enemies, your resolution not
'to truckle to the mob,' as he says."

"And would you have me truckle to them?"

"No, not for the world. I never wish you to lower yourself; but somehow
I cannot help thinking it unjust to include all poor working-people
under the general and insulting name of 'the mob,' and continually to
think of them and treat them haughtily."

"You are a little democrat, Caroline. If your uncle knew, what would he
say?"

"I rarely talk to my uncle, as you know, and never about such things. He
thinks everything but sewing and cooking above women's comprehension,
and out of their line."

"And do you fancy you comprehend the subjects on which you advise me?"

"As far as they concern you, I comprehend them. I know it would be
better for you to be loved by your workpeople than to be hated by them,
and I am sure that kindness is more likel