said Matilda. "Have I not heard you rail at the forest-laws by the hour?"
"Did you ever hear me," said the baron, "rail myself out of house and land? If I had done that, then were I a knave."
"My lover," said Matilda, "is a brave man, and a true man, and a generous man, and a young man, and a handsome man; aye, and an honest man too."
"How can he be an honest man," said the baron, "when he has neither house nor land, which are the better part of a man?"
"They are but the husk of a man," said Matilda, "the worthless coat of the chesnut: the man himself is the kernel."
"The man is the grape-stone," said the baron, "and the pulp of the melon. The house and land are the true substantial fruit, and all that give him savour and value."
"He will never want house or land,"
