have no settlement in our village."

"A sound and very excellent distinction, Dan. But as against those who

make the laws, and take good care to enforce them, even you (though of

the upper rank here) must be counted of the lower order. For instance,

can you look at a pheasant, or a hare, without being put into prison?

Can you dine in the same room with Admiral Darling, or ask how his gout

is, without being stared at?"

"No, sir. He would think it a great impertinence, even if I dared to do

such a thing. But my father might do it, as a tenant and old neighbour.

Though he never gets the gout, when he rides about so much."

"What a matter-of-fact youth it is! But to come to things every man has

a right to. If you saved the life of one of the Admiral's daughters,

and she fell in love with you, as young people will, would you dare even

lift your eyes to her? Would you not be kicked out of the house and the

parish, if you dared to indulge the right of every honest heart?

Would you dare to look upon her as a human being, of the same order of

creation as yourself, who might one day be your wife, if you were true

and honest, and helped to break down the absurd distinctions built up by

vile tyranny between you? In a word, are you a man--as every man is on

the Continent--or only an English slave, of the lower classes?"

The hot flush of wrath, and the soft glow of shame, met and deepened

each other on the fair cheeks of this "slave"; while his mind would

not come to him to make a fit reply. That his passion for Dolly, his

hopeless passion, should thus be discovered by a man of her own rank,

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