pleasantly at me when I christened them as I am happy to see them looking now.  But I’m sure you will not wonder when I say that among all those young men, the one in whom I have the strongest interest is my friend Mr. Arthur Donnithorne, for whom you have just expressed your regard.  I had the pleasure of being his tutor for several years, and have naturally had opportunities of knowing him intimately which cannot have occurred to any one else who is present; and I have some pride as well as pleasure in assuring you that I share your high hopes concerning him, and your confidence in his possession of those qualities which will make him an excellent landlord when the time shall come for him to take that important position among you.  We feel alike on most matters on which a man who is getting towards fifty can feel in common with a young man of one-and-twenty, and he has just been expressing a feeling which I share very heartily, and I would not willingly omit the opportunity of saying so.  That feeling is his value and respect for Adam Bede.  People in a high station are of course more thought of and talked about and have their virtues more praised, than those whose lives are passed in humble everyday work; but every sensible man knows how necessary that humble everyday work is, and how important it is to us that it should be done well.  And I agree with my friend Mr. Arthur Donnithorne in feeling that when a man whose duty lies in that sort of work shows a character which would make him an example in any station, his merit should be acknowledged.  He is one of those to whom honour is due, and his friends should delight to honour him.  I know Adam Bede well—­I know what he is as a workman, and what he has been as a son and brother—­and I am saying the simplest truth when I say that I respect him as much as I respect any man living.  But I am not speaking to you about a stranger; some of you are his intimate friends, and I believe there is not one here who does not know enough of him to join heartily in drinking his health.”

As Mr. Irwine paused, Arthur jumped up and, filling his glass, said, “A bumper to Adam Bede, and may he live to have sons as faithful and clever as himself!”

No hearer, not even Bartle Massey, was so delighted with this toast as Mr. Poyser.  “Tough work” as his first speech had been, he would have started up to make another if he had not known the extreme irregularity of such a course.  As it was, he found an outlet for his feeling in drinking his ale unusually fast, and setting down his glass with a swing of his arm and a determined rap.  If Jonathan Burge and a few others felt less comfortable on the occasion, they tried their best to look contented, and so the toast was drunk with a goodwill apparently unanimous.