up for a model. I may steal a horse, while he may not look over the
wall! Did you observe the inconsistency?--angry with the poor fellow
first for having the book, and then for not reading the whole, while
it became amiable and praiseworthy in me to burn out a candle over
it!'

'Ah! that was my concern. I tell him he would sing another note if
you were his son.'

'I'd soon make him! I would not stand what Louis does. The more he
is set down and sneered at, the more debonnaire he looks, till I
could rave at him for taking it so easily.'

'I hoped you might have hindered them from fretting each other, as
they do so often.'

'I should only be a fresh element of discord, while his lordship will
persist in making me his pattern young man. It makes me hate myself,
especially as Louis is such an unaccountable fellow that he won't.'

'I am sorry you dislike the plan so much.'

'Do you mean that you wish for it, grandmamma? cried he, turning full
round on her with an air of extreme amazement. 'If you do, there's
an end of it; but I thought you valued nothing more than an
independent home.'

'Nor would I give it up on any account,' said she. 'I do not imagine
this could possibly last for more than a few months, or a year at the
utmost. But you know, dear Jem, I would do nothing you did not