Because in our class, in our order, I should perhaps say,-men are born responsible to the country. And the sooner you learn to discharge the obligation, the better."

"My poor uncle did not think so; or he would not have put forward Sir John Wraysbury for the county."

"He might not think you square-toed enough for a county member;-not sufficiently carré sur la base.-But I promise you he intended to place you in the Lower School of Parliament as soon as might be :-to represent Hurdiston, if possible,—if not, some easy borough -no matter where."

Lord Wilchester looked uneasy. Perhaps because the veracity of the author of his days appeared a little questionable.

"In my time," added his father more firmly, "the eldest son of a peer who was not in Parliament, was a dead-letter."

"You often speak of your time, my dear father, as if it were out of the memory of man,"

pleaded Edgar.-"To what period do you ex

actly allude?"

Lord Dinton, or rather old Molyneux,hated to be nailed to an Anno Domini.

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Why, I consider my time to have been," he replied peevishly, " that is-I understand by the words my time,-a-a-I understand-Why, the time of the old club at Melton."

Though tolerably well up in his Chepmell, and Mangnall, and other assistants to the memory of ingenuous youth,-Edgar was puzzled. Such a date was decidedly not recorded

in their pages.

ઃઃ

My poor uncle, two years your senior, always appeared to me so young a man,"-he was beginning: but Lord Dinton cut him short.

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Yes, as you say, Willy was amazingly young. In many respects, boyish,--almost childish ;the juvenility of a golden pippin preserved for fifty years in wax.-But the question before the House, Wilchester,-you understand?—is not our age, but yours.-You are, as I stated just

now, on the eve of coming into Parliament.Your name is up at the three best clubs. And though, for both our sakes, I don't want to find you perpetually hooked to my arm, you will soon be known by sight to every one worth knowing, as my eldest son.- A national institution worth something, that law of primogeniture !"—

The young Viscount, who, in his youth, had heard the Honourable Gerald discuss the question with very different arguments, held It was less easy to keep his

his peace. countenance.

"Our guilds and primogeniture," said the Earl, draping his wadded dressing-gown around him in toga-like folds, like Cæsar preparing to fall with decency, "are nearly our only reliques of feudai times, our sole inheritance from the days or chivalry. In short," added the fireside orator, "it will no longer do for you to be seen in company with persons of questionable respectability."

"My dear father"—

Have the goodness to hear me out.”—(He could not conscientiously add in "my time, young

men listened to their parents without interruption.")" You and I probably differ about the meaning of the word respectability. To prevent any possible error on your part, therefore, I explicitly warn you that I do not wish you to be seen in company with that Mr. Farmer."

"Roger Farmer?" reiterated Lord Wilchester, unspeakably astonished; for he had supposed his father to allude to one or two of his less reputable Christchurch chums.

"The man who married one of the Penningtons, and lives in Eaton Square."

“But he is one of my late uncle's executors! -He was one of his most valued friends!-He is one of the first men in England !”—

Lord Dinton slightly curled his lip, and gently raised his shoulders; as though his son's ignorance of the world deserved only an indulgent measure of contempt.

"You are not at present capable of distinguishing very accurately in such matters," said he. "Your Mr. Farmer is perhaps a great man in his way. But his way is not ours. He is a professed Reformer, I find,—the new name for Radical."

"He is a Liberal,—if that is what you mean,', cried Edgar, impatiently. "But my uncle, who was a professed Conservative, regarded him with, the utmost respect."

"I don't pretend to understand the political nomenclature of the day," rejoined his father, drawing nearer the fire. "In my time, we had Whigs and Tories; and, as when children played at French and English, the game implied a pitched battle.-Now, we have as many political sects as religions,-though still but one While adhering to their melted butter, people talk of a liberal Conservative, as they used about an Antinomian or an Erastian !— Poor people!"

sauce.

"Very poor, if they talk of a man like Roger