Albert Charlton, like many other very conscientious men at his time of life, was quarrelsomely honest.  He disliked Mr. Plausaby’s way of doing business, and he therefore determined to satisfy his conscience by having a row with his step-father.  And so he startled his sister and shocked his mother, and made the house generally uncomfortable, by making, in season and out of season, severe remarks on the subject of land speculation, and particularly of land-sharks.  It was only Albert’s very disagreeable way of being honest.  Even Isabel Marlay looked with terror at what she regarded as signs of an approaching quarrel between the two men of the house.

But there was no such thing as a quarrel with Plausaby.  Moses may have been the meekest of men, but that was in the ages before Plausaby, Esq.  No manner of abuse could stir him.  He had suffered many things of many men in his life, many things of outraged creditors, and the victims of his somewhat remarkable way of dealing; his air of patient long-suffering and quiet forbearance under injury had grown chronic.  It was, indeed, part of his stock in trade, an element of character that redounded to his credit, while it cost nothing and was in every way profitable.  It was as though the whole catalogue of Christian virtues had been presented to Plausaby to select from, and he, with characteristic shrewdness, had taken the one trait that was cheapest and most remunerative.

In these contests Albert was generally sure to sacrifice by his extravagance whatever sympathy he might otherwise have had from the rest of the family.  When he denounced dishonest trading, Isabel knew that he was right, and that Mr. Plausaby deserved the censure, and even Mrs. Plausaby and the sweet, unreasoning Katy felt something of the justice of what he said.  But Charlton was never satisfied to stop here.  He always went further, and made a clean sweep of the whole system of town-site speculation, which unreasonable invective forced those who would have been his friends into opposition.  And the beautiful meekness with which Plausaby, Esq., bore his step-son’s denunciations never failed to excite the sympathy and admiration of all beholders.  By never speaking an unkind word, by treating Albert with gentle courtesy, by never seeming to feel his innuendoes, Plausaby heaped coals of fire on his enemies’ head, and had faith to believe that the coals were very hot.  Mrs. Ferret, who once witnessed one of the contests between the two, or rather one of these attacks of Albert, for there could be no contest with embodied meekness, gave her verdict for Plausaby.  He showed such a “Chrischen” spirit.  She really thought he must have felt the power of grace.  He seemed to hold schripcherral views, and show such a spirit of Chrischen forbearance, that she for her part thought he deserved the sympathy of good people.  Mr. Charlton was severe, he was unchar-it-able—­really unchar-it-able in his spirit.  He pretended to a great deal of honesty, but people of unsound views generally whitened the outside of the sep-ul-cher.  And Mrs. Ferret closed the sentence by jerking her face into an astringed smile, which, with the rising inflection of her voice, demanded the assent of her hearers.