doesn't appear so unreasonable. The Bankses are evidently good old yeoman
stock on the father's side. It is a mere accident of luck that you should
be the owners of the land and not they."

"Theoretically, yes!" he said with a hint of impatience. "But we've got to
consider the opinions--prejudices, if you like--of all my people--to say
nothing of the neighbours."

"Oh! put the neighbours first," I exclaimed. "It's what we think other
people will think that counts with most of us."

"It isn't," Jervaise returned gloomily. "You don't understand what the
idea of family means to people like my father and mother. They've been
brought up in it. It has more influence with them than religion. They'd
prefer any scandal to a mésalliance."

"In your sister's case?" I put in, a trifle shocked by the idea of the
scandal, and then discovered that he had not been thinking of Brenda.

"Perhaps not in that case," he said, "but..." he paused noticeably before
adding, "The principle remains the same."

"Isn't it chiefly a matter of courage?" I asked. "It isn't as if ... the
mésalliance were in any way disgraceful."

I can't absolve myself from the charge of hypocrisy in the making of that
speech. I was thinking of Jervaise and Anne, and I did not for one moment
believe that Anne would ever marry him. My purpose was, I think,
well-intentioned. I honestly believed that it would be good for him to
fall in love with Anne and challenge the world of his people's opinion for