She was clever,
accomplished, beautiful, well-mannered,--as far as he knew endowed
with all good qualities! Would not many an old Roman have said as
much for some favourite Greek slave,--for some freedmen whom he
would admit to his very heart? But what old Roman ever dreamed of
giving his daughter to the son of a Greek bondsman! Had he done
so, what would have become of the name of a Roman citizen? And was
it not his duty to fortify and maintain that higher, smaller, more
precious pinnacle of rank on which Fortune had placed him and his
children?
Like her! Yes! he liked her certainly. He had by no means always
found that he best liked the companionship of his own order. He
had liked to feel around him the free battle of the House of
Commons. He liked the power of attack and defence in carrying on
which an English politician cares nothing for rank. He liked to
remember that the son of any tradesman might, by his own merits,
become a peer of Parliament. He would have liked to think that his
son should share all these tastes with him.
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