“There must have been great changes since I was at school.  I believe the rising generation is developing a nobler ambition than their predecessors possessed.”

“I should hope so,” I said, with girlish scorn; “as if such mere accidents as birth and the ownership of plate and jewelry could give one higher rank than intellect.  Why, I believe that is the scarcest thing in all the universe.”

“It does seem ridiculous,” Mrs. Flaxman said reflectively, “but it is hard escaping from the spirit of the age in which we live.  It would be easy to hold such things lightly in those heroic days in Greece when Lycurgus cheapened the gold and things the masses held most precious.”

“One can have a little republic in their own soul as well as Lycurgus, and indulge unforced in high thinking.  I think that would be really more creditable than if every one agreed to do so by act of senate.”

“It would be a grand thing for every one to get the dross all burned away from their nature and only have the pure gold left.”

“Don’t you think, Mrs. Flaxman, with a good many people, after the burning process, there would be so little left it would take a whole flock of them to make a decent sized individual?”

She laughed softly.  “I never thought of it in that way.  I am afraid now I will get to undressing my acquaintances, to try and find out how much that will be fit to take into higher existences they have in their composition.”

“Mr. Winthrop is a very uncomfortable sort of person to live with, but I think he will have more noble qualities to carry somewhere after death than the average of my acquaintances.  What a pity it is for such splendid powers of mind to be lost!  He has the materials in him to make a grand angel.”

Mrs. Flaxman looked up quickly.

“You cannot think it is his ultimate destiny to be lost?” she questioned.

“He doesn’t believe in the Bible.  What hope can he have that we will ever get to heaven?”

“A multitude of prayers are piled between him and perdition.  His mother was a saintly character, whose dying breath was a prayer for him; and there are others who have taken his case daily to the mercy seat for years.”

“I wish I had some one to pray for me,” I said rather fretfully.

“My dear, I do not know any one who has more leisure to pray for themselves than you have.”

I was surprised to hear her speak so lightly on such a solemn subject; but as I thought the matter over afterward, I could but acknowledge that she had answered me just as I deserved.

CHAPTER XII.

New acquaintances.

Mrs. Flaxman’s fears were realized.  She was detained from her pickles and preserves for over a fortnight; but the days spent then in the city were an entirely new revelation of life to me.  Mr. Winthrop had a circle of literary friends, who seemed determined to make his stay so pleasant that he would not be in a hurry to return to the solitude of Oaklands.  When I saw his keen enjoyment of their society, and the many varied privileges he had in that brief period—­musical, artistic, and literary, I was filled with surprise that he should make his home at Oaklands at all, and expressed my wonder to Mrs. Flaxman.