Winterfield had thumped with her umbrella, and faintly cheered him with
her weak old voice. But the surrounding Perivalians had heard the
cheer, and it was repeated backward and forwards through the room, till
the Member's aunt thought that it might be her nephew's mission to
annul that godless Act of Parliament and restore the matrimonial bonds
of England to their old rigidity. When Captain Aylmer came out to hand
her up to her little carriage, she patted him, and thanked him, and
encouraged him; and on her way home she congratulated herself to Clara
that she should have such a nephew to leave behind in her place.

Captain Aylmer was dining with the Mayor on that evening, and Mrs
Winterfield was therefore able to indulge herself in talking about him.
'I don't see much of young men, of course,' she said; 'but I do not
even hear of any that are like him.' Again Clara thought of her cousin
Will. Will was not at all like Frederic Aylmer; but was he not better?
And yet, as she thought thus, she remembered that she had refused her
cousin Will because she loved that very Frederic Aylmer whom her mind
was thus condemning.

'I'm sure he does his duty as a Member of Parliament very well,' said
Clara.

'That alone would not be much; but when that is joined to so much that
is better, it is a great deal. I am told that very few of the men in
the House now are believers at all.'

'Oh, aunt!'

'It is terrible to think of, my dear.'