"What is Lord Rufford to you?" asked Mrs. Masters.

"He has always been very friendly."

"I don't see it at all. You have never had any of his money. I
don't know that you are a pound richer by him."

"I have always gone with the gentry of the county."

"Fiddlesticks! Gentry! Gentry are very well as long as you can make
a living out of them. You could afford to stick up for gentry till
you lost the Bragton property." This was a subject that was always
sore between Mr. Masters and his wife. The former Mrs. Masters had
been a lady--the daughter of a neighbouring clergyman; and had been
much considered by the family at Bragton. The present Mrs. Masters
was the daughter of an ironmonger at Norrington, who had brought a
thousand pounds with her, which had been very useful. No doubt Mr.
Masters' practice had been considerably affected by the lowliness
of his second marriage. People who used to know the first Mrs.
Masters, such as Mrs. Mainwaring, and the doctor's wife, and old
Mrs. Cooper, the wife of the vicar of Mallingham, would not call on
the second Mrs. Masters. As Mrs. Masters was too high-spirited to
run after people who did not want her, she took to hating gentry
instead.

"We have always been on the other side," said the old attorney, "I
and my father and grandfather before me."

"They lived on it and you can't. If you are going to say that you