"Why, my father is fastidious; however, he owns that he is satisfied on
the whole."

"So am I, then. Mathematics?"

"A little."

"Good."

Here the conversation dropped for some time. I had found and restrapped
the knapsack, and we were near the lodge, when Mr. Trevanion said
abruptly, "Talk, my young friend, talk; I like to hear you talk,--it
refreshes me. Nobody has talked naturally to me these last ten years."

The request was a complete damper to my ingenuous eloquence; I could not
have talked naturally now for the life of me.

"I made a mistake, I see," said my companion, good-humoredly, noticing
my embarrassment. "Here we are at the lodge. The coach will be by in
five minutes: you can spend that time in hearing the old woman praise
the Hogtons and abuse me. And hark you, sir, never care three straws
for praise or blame,--leather and prunella! Praise and blame are here!"
and he struck his hand upon his breast with almost passionate emphasis.
"Take a specimen. These Hogtons were the bane of the place,--uneducated
and miserly; their land a wilderness, their village a pig-sty. I come,
with capital and intelligence; I redeem the soil, I banish pauperism, I
civilize all around me: no merit in me, I am but a type of capital
guided by education,--a machine. And yet the old woman is not the only
one who will hint to you that the Hogtons were angels, and myself the
usual antithesis to angels. And what is more, sir, because that old