‘Wednesday is the forbidden evening, is it not?’ he said to his cousin.

‘Yes, that is devoted to business.’

As soon as he had gone, the friends exchanged a look.  Each understood the other as referring to this point of Wednesday evening, but neither made a remark.  They were silent for some time.  When Rhoda at length spoke it was in a tone of half-indifferent curiosity.

‘You are sure you haven’t exaggerated Mr. Barfoot’s failings?’

The reply was delayed for a moment.

’I was a little indiscreet to speak of him at all.  But no, I didn’t exaggerate.’

‘Curious,’ mused the other dispassionately, as she stood with one foot on the fender.  ’He hardly strikes one as that kind of man.

‘Oh, he has certainly changed a great deal.’

Miss Barfoot went on to speak of her cousin’s resolve to pursue no calling.

’His means are very modest.  I feel rather guilty before him; his father bequeathed to me much of the money that would in the natural course have been Everard’s.  But he is quite superior to any feeling of grudge on that score.’

‘Practically, his father disinherited him?’

’It amounted to that.  From quite a child, Everard was at odds with his father.  A strange thing, for in so many respects they resembled each other very closely.  Physically, Everard is his father walking the earth again.  In character, too, I think they must be very much alike.  They couldn’t talk about the simplest thing without disagreeing.  My uncle had risen from the ranks but he disliked to be reminded of it.  He disliked the commerce by which he made his fortune.  His desire was to win social position; if baronetcies could be purchased in our time, he would have given a huge sum to acquire one.  But he never distinguished himself, and one of the reasons was, no doubt, that he married too soon.  I have heard him speak bitterly, and very indiscreetly, of early marriages; his wife was dead then, but every one knew what he meant.  Rhoda, when one thinks how often a woman is a clog upon a man’s ambition, no wonder they regard us as they do.’

’Of course, women are always retarding one thing or another.  But men are intensely stupid not to have remedied that long ago.’

’He determined that his boys should be gentlemen.  Tom, the elder, followed his wishes exactly; he was remarkably clever, but idleness spoilt him, and now he has made that ridiculous marriage—­the end of poor Tom.  Everard went to Eton, and the school had a remarkable effect upon him; it made him a furious Radical.  Instead of imitating the young aristocrats he hated and scorned them.  There must have been great force of originality in the boy.  Of course I don’t know whether any Etonians of his time preached Radicalism, but it seems unlikely.  I think it was sheer vigour of character, and the strange desire to oppose his father in everything.  From Eton he was of course to pass to Oxford, but at that