decidedly a Low Churchman. I am not aware that the peculiarity stuck to
him very closely at Aylmer Castle, in Yorkshire, or among his friends
in London; but there was no hypocrisy in this, as the world goes. Women
in such matters are absolutely false if they be not sincere; but men,
with political views, and with much of their future prospects in
jeopardy also, are allowed to dress themselves differently for
different scenes. Whatever be the peculiar interest on which a man goes
into Parliament, of course he has to live up to that in his own
borough. Whether malt, the franchise, or teetotalism be his rallying
point, of course he is full of it when among his constituents. But it
is not desirable that he should be full of it also at his club. Had
Captain Aylmer become Prime Minister, he would no doubt have made Low
Church bishops. It was the side to which he had taken himself in that
matter not without good reasons. And he could say a sharp word or two
in season about vestments; he was strong against candles, and fought
for his side fairly well. No one had good right to complain of Captain
Aylmer as being insincere; but had his aunt known the whole history of
her nephew's life, I doubt whether she would have made him her heir
thinking that in doing so she was doing the best for the good cause.

The whole history of her niece's life she did know, and she knew that
Clara was not with her, heart and soul. Had Clara left the old woman in
doubt on this subject, she would have been a hypocrite. Captain Aylmer
did not often spend a Sunday at Perivale, but when he did, he went to
church three times, and submitted himself to the yoke. He was thinking
of the borough votes quite as much as of his aunt's money, and was
carrying on his business after the fashion of men But Clara found
herself compelled to maintain some sort of a fight, though she also
went to church three times on Sunday. And there was another reason why
Mrs Winterfield thought it right to mention Captain Aylmer's name to