'I don't,' replied his sister, with a note of disdain. 'We knew each
other at school, and we haven't altogether broken off, that's all.'

'It isn't all!' shouted the young man on a high key. 'If you're not
friendly with her and her sisters, you've been a great hypocrite.
It's only just lately you have begun to think yourself too good for
them. They used to come here, and you went to them; and you talked
just like friends would do. It's abominable to turn round like this,
for the sake of taking father's side against me!'

Mr. Lord regarded his son contemptuously. There was a rather long
silence; he spoke at length with severe deliberation.

'When you are ten years older, you'll know a good deal more about
young women as they're turned out in these times. You'll have heard
the talk of men who have been fools enough to marry choice
specimens. When common sense has a chance of getting in a word with
you, you'll understand what I now tell you. Wherever you look
now-a-days there's sham and rottenness; but the most worthless
creature living is one of these trashy, flashy girls,--the kind of
girl you see everywhere, high and low,--calling themselves
"ladies,"--thinking themselves too good for any honest, womanly
work. Town and country, it's all the same. They're educated; oh yes,
they're educated! What sort of wives do they make, with their
education? What sort of mothers are they? Before long, there'll be
no such thing as a home. They don't know what the word means. They'd
like to live in hotels, and trollop about the streets day and night.
There won't be any servants much longer; you're lucky if you find
one of the old sort, who knows how to light a fire or wash a dish.
Go into the houses of men with small incomes; what do you find but