“And with the other one you think he could?”

“What?”

“Succeed? —­ one whose first object, as you say, was something else?”

“With the other I think anybody could.”

“I don’t know but I like that,” said Rufus; —­ “it is amiable.  She has more simplicity.  She is a lovely creature!”

“If you ask your eye.”

“If I ask yours!” —­

“Every man must see with his own eyes,” said Winthrop.

“Don’t yours see her lovely?”

“They might, if they had not an inward counsellor that taught them better.”

“She is very sweet-tempered and sweet-mannered,” said Rufus.

“Very.”

“Don’t you think so?”

“Certainly —­ when it suits her.”

“When it suits her!”

“Yes.  She is naturally rude, and politically polite.”

“And how’s the other one? isn’t she naturally rude too?”

“Not politically anything.”

“And you think she wouldn’t have me?”

“I am sure she would not, if she knew your motive.”

“My motive! —­ but my motive might change,” said Rufus, pushing back his chair and beginning to walk the floor again.  “It isn’t necessary that my regards should be confined to her gracious adjunctive recommendations. —­”

He walked for some time without reply, and again the leaves of Winthrop’s book said softly now and then that Winthrop’s head was busy with them.

“Governor, you are very unsatisfactory!” said his brother at length, standing now in front of him.

Winthrop looked up and smiled and said, “What would you have?”

“Your approbation!” —­ was the strong and somewhat bitter thought in Rufus’s mind.  He paused before he spoke.

“But Governor, really I am tired of this life —­ it isn’t what I am fit for; —­ and why not escape from it, if I can, by some agreeable road that will do nobody any harm?”

“With all my heart,” said Winthrop.  “I’ll help you.”

“Well? —­”

“Well —­”

“You think this is not such a one?”

“The first step in it being a stumble.”

“To whom would it bring harm, Governor?”

“The head must lower when the foot stumbles,” said Winthrop.  “That is one harm.”

“But you are begging the question!” said Rufus a little impatiently.

“And you have granted it.”

“I haven’t!” said Rufus.  “I don’t see it.  I don’t see the stumbling or the lowering.  I should not feel myself lowered by marrying a fine woman, and I hope she would not feel her own self-respect injured by marrying me.”

“You will not stand so high upon her money-bags as upon your own feet.”

“Why not have the advantage of both?”

“You cannot.  People always sit down upon money-bags.  The only exception is in the case of money-bags they have filled themselves.”

Rufus looked at Winthrop’s book for three minutes in silence.