indulgent to an inferior understanding.

"So you always say. When did you see Lady Susan?"

"Oh, not for a long time."

"What vexes me is, that you don't make the slightest use of your
opportunities. It's really astonishing that, with your talents, you
should be content to go on teaching children their A. B. C. You have
no energy, Dyce, and no ambition. By this time you might have been
in the diplomatic service, you might have been in Parliament. Are
you going to waste your whole life?"

"That depends on the view one takes of life," said Dyce, in a
philosophical tone which he sometimes adopted--generally after
dinner. "Why should one always be thinking about 'getting on?' It's
the vice of the time. Why should I elbow and hustle in a vulgar
crowd? A friend of mine, Lord Dymchurch--"

"What! You have made friends with a lord?" cried Mrs. Lashmar, her
face illumined.

"Why not?--I was going to say that Dymchurch, though he's poor,
and does nothing at all, is probably about the most distinguished
man in the peerage. He is distinguished by nature, and that's enough
for him. You'd like Dymchurch, father."

The vicar looked up from a fit of black brooding, and said "Ah! no
doubt." Mrs. Lashmar, learning the circumstances of Lord Dymchurch,
took less pride in him, but went on to ask questions. Had his