"He's a traitor to his class," said I warmly.

"If you want him, you must look on a race course, or at a
tailor's, or in some fashionable woman's boudoir. And his estate
looks after itself. He's too selfish to marry, too idle to work,
too silly to think."

I began to be sorry for this man, in spite of his peccadilloes.

"I wonder if I've met him," said I. "I'm occasionally in town,
when I can get time to run up. What's his name?"

"I don't think I heard--or I've forgotten. But he's got the
place next to a friend of mine in the country, and she told me
all about him. She's exactly the opposite sort of person--or she
wouldn't be my friend."

"I should think not, Miss Milton," said I admiringly.

"Oh, I should like to meet that man, and tell him what I think of
him!" said she. "Such men as he do more harm than a dozen
agitators. So contemptible, too!"

"It's revolting to think of," said I.

"I'm so glad you--" began Miss Milton, quite confidentially; I
pulled my chair a trifle closer, and cast an apparently careless
glance towards Mrs. Hilary. Suddenly I heard a voice behind me.