that was refused me?'

'If that is all you have to complain of, I can't pity you,' said
Mary.

'Listen, Mary. Let me wish for a horse, there it is! Let me wish
for a painted window, we can't afford it, though, after all, it would
not eat; but horses are an adjunct of state and propriety. So again,
the parish feasted last 18th of January, because I came of age, and
it was _proper_; while if I ask that our people may be released from
work on Good Friday or Ascension Day, it is thought outrageous.'

'If I remember right, my dear,' interposed his aunt, 'you wanted no
work to be done on any saint's-day. Was there not a scheme that Mr.
Holdsworth called the cricket cure!'

'That may yet be. No one knows the good a few free days would do the
poor. But I developed my plan too rapidly! I'll try again for their
church-going on Good Friday.'

'I think you ought to succeed there.'

'I know how it will be. My father will ring, propound the matter to
Frampton; the answer will be, 'Quite impracticable, my Lord,' and
there will be an end of it.'

'Perhaps not. At least it will have been considered,' said Mary.

'True,' said Louis; 'but you little know what it is to have a
Frampton! If he be a fair sample of prime ministers, no wonder