 that he might stay late at Mount Laurels.
    »Then he will arrive here after nightfall,« said the doctor. »A bed is at
your service, ma'am.«
    The offer was declined. »I should like to have seen him to-day; but he will
be home shortly.«
    »He will not quit Bevisham till this Election's decided unless to hunt a
stray borough vote, ma'am.«
    »He goes to Mount Laurels.«
    »For that purpose.«
    »I do not think he will persuade Colonel Halkett to vote in the Radical
interest.«
    »That is the probability with a landed proprietor, ma'am. We must knock,
whether the door opens or not. Like,« the doctor laughed to himself up aloft,
»like a watchman in the night to say that he smells smoke on the premises.«
    »Surely we may expect Captain Beauchamp to consult his family about so
serious a step as this he is taking,« Rosamund said, with an effort to be civil.
    »Why should he?« asked the impending doctor.
    His head continued in the interrogative position when it had resumed its
elevation. The challenge for a definite reply to so outrageous a question
irritated Rosamund's nerves, and, loth though she was to admit him to the
subject, she could not forbear from saying, »Why? Surely his family have the
first claim on him!«
    »Surely not, ma'am. There is no first claim. A man's wife and children have
a claim on him for bread. A man's parents have a claim on him for obedience
while he is a child. A man's uncles, aunts, and cousins have no claim on him at
all, except for help in necessity, which he can grant and they require. None -
wife, children, parents, relatives - none has a claim to bar his judgement and
his actions. Sound the conscience, and sink the family! With a clear conscience,
it is best to leave the family to its own debates. No man ever did brave work
who held counsel with his family. The family view of a man's fit conduct is the
weak point of the country. It is no other view than, Better thy condition for
our sakes. Ha! In this way we breed sheep, fatten oxen: men are dying off.
Resolution taken, consult the family means - waste your time! Those who go to it
want an excuse for altering their minds. The family view is ever
