since. A very clever fellow is Felix Graham. There can be no doubt of that.'
'Is he?' said Madeline.
I am inclined to think that the judge also had lost something of his presence of mind, or, at least, of his usual power of conversation. He had brought his daughter out there with the express purpose of saying to her a special word or two; he had beat very wide about the bush with the view of mentioning a certain name; and now that his daughter was there, and the name had been mentioned, it seemed that he hardly knew how to proceed.
'Yes, he is clever enough,' repeated the judge, 'clever enough; and of high principles and an honest purpose. The fault which people find with him is this,—that he is not practical. He won't take the world as he finds it. If he can mend it, well and good; we all ought to do something to mend it; but while we are mending it we must live in it.'
'Yes, we must live in it,' said Madeline, who hardly knew at the moment whether it would be better to live or die in it. Had her father remarked that they must all take wings and fly to heaven, she would have assented.
Then the judge walked on a few paces in silence, bethinking himself that he might as well speak out at once the words which he had to say. 'Madeline, my darling,' said he, 'have you the courage to tell me openly what you think of Felix Graham?'
'What I think of him, papa?'
'Yes, my child. It may be that you are in some difficulty at this moment, and that I can help you. It may be that your heart is sadder than it would be if you knew all my thoughts and wishes respecting you, and all your mother's. I have never had many secrets from my children, Madeline, and I should be pleased now if you could see into my mind and know all my thoughts and wishes as they regard you.'
'Dear papa!'
'To see you happy—you and Augustus and Isabella—that is now our happiness; not to see you rich or great. High position and a plentiful income are great blessings in this world, so that they be achieved without a stain. But even in this world they are not the greatest blessings. There are things much sweeter than them.' As he said this, Madeline did not attempt to answer him, but she put her arm once more within his, and clung to his side.
'Money and rank are only good, if every step by which they are gained be good also. I should never blush to see my girl the wife of a poor man whom she loved; but I should be stricken to the core of my heart if I knew that she had become the wife of a rich man whom she did not love.'
'Papa!' she said, clinging to him. She had meant to assure him
