the desirableness of moving there. They
found Margaret with a letter open before
her, eagerly discussing its contents with her
father. On the entrance of the gentlemen, it
was immediately put aside; but Mr. Thornton's
eager senses caught some few words of
Mr. Hale's to Mr. Bell.

"A letter from Henry Lennox. It makes
Margaret very hopeful."

Mr. Bell nodded. Margaret was red as
a rose when Mr. Thornton looked at
her. He had the greatest mind in the world
to get up and go out of the room that very
instant, and never set foot in the house
again.

"We were thinking," said Mr. Hale, " that
you and Mr.Thornton had taken
Margaret's advice, and were each trying to
convert the other, you were so long in the study."

"And you thought there would be nothing
left of us but an opinion, like the Kilkenny
cat's tail. Pray whose opinion did you think
would have the most obstinate vitality?"

Mr.Thornton had not a notion what they
were talking about, and disdained to inquire.
Mr. Hale politely enlightened him.

"Mr.Thornton, we were accusing Mr. Bell
this morning of a kind of Oxonian mediæval
bigotry against his native town; and we—
Margaret I believe—suggested that it would
do him good to associate a little with Milton
manufacturers."

"I beg your pardon. Margaret thought it
would do the Milton manufacturers good to
associate a little more with Oxford men. Now
was'nt it so, Margaret?"

"I believe, I thought it would do both good
to see a little more of the other,—I did not
know it was my idea any more than
papa's."

"And so you see, Mr.Thornton, we ought
to have been improving each other
downstairs, instead of talking over vanished
families of Smiths and Harrisons. However, I
am willing to do my part now. I wonder
when you Milton men intend to live. All
your lives seem to be spent in gathering
together the materials for life."

"By living, I suppose you mean enjoyment."

"Yes, enjoyment,—I don't specify of what,
because I trust we should both consider mere
pleasure as very poor enjoyment."

"I would rather have the nature of the
enjoyment defined."

"Well! enjoyment of leisure—enjoyment
of the power and influence which money
gives. You are all striving for money. What
do you want it for?"

Mr. Thornton was silent. Then he said,
"I really don't know. But money is not what
I strive for."

"What then?"

"It is a home question. I shall have to lay
myself open to such a catechist, and I am not
sure that I am prepared to do it."

"No! " said Mr. Hale; " don't let us be
personal in our catechism. You are neither
of you representative men; you are each of
you too individual for that."

"I am not sure whether to consider that
as a compliment or not. I should like to be
the representative of Oxford, with its beauty
and its learning, and its proud old history.
What do you say, Margaret; ought I to be
flattered?"

"I don't know Oxford. But there is a
difference between being the representative of a
city and the representative man of its
inhabitants."

"Very true, Miss Margaret. Now I
remember, you were against me this morning,
and were quite Miltonian and manufacturing
in your preferences." Margaret saw the
quick glance of surprise that Mr.Thornton
gave her, and she was annoyed at the
construction which he might put on this speech
of Mr. Bell's. Mr. Bell went on—

"Ah! I wish I could show you our High
Street—our Radcliife Square. I am leaving
out our colleges, just as I give Mr.Thornton
leave to omit his factories in speaking of the
charms of Milton. I have a right to abuse
my birth-place. Remember I am a Milton
man."

Mr. Thornton was annoyed more than he
ought to have been at all that Mr. Bell was
saying. He was not in a mood for joking.
At another time, he could have enjoyed Mr.
Bell's half testy condemnation of a town
where the life was so at variance with every
habit he had formed; but now he was galled
enough to attempt to defend what was never
meant to be seriously attacked.

"I don't set up Milton as a model of a
town."

"Not in architecture? " slily asked Mr.
Bell.

"No! We've been too busy to attend to
mere outward appearances."

"Don't say mere outward appearances,"
said Mr. Hale, gently. " They impress us all,
from childhood upward—every day of one's
life."

'' Wait a little while," said Mr. Thornton.
"Remember, we are of a different race from
the Greeks, to whom beauty was everything,
and to whom Mr. Bell might speak of a life
of leisure and serene enjoyment, much of
which entered in through their outward
senses. I don't mean to despise them, any
more than I would ape them. But I belong
to Teutonic blood; it is little mingled in this
part of England to what it is in others; we
retain much of their language; we retain
more of their spirit; we do not look upon
life as a time for enjoyment, but as a time for
action and exertion. Our glory and our
beauty arises out of our inward strength,
which makes us victorious over material
resistance, and over greater difficulties still.
We are Teutonic up here in Darkshire in
another way. We hate to have laws made
for us at a distance. We wish people would
allow us to right ourselves, instead of