while I roamed about and made sketches, or read; and I have
enjoyed much happiness of a quiet kind all day long. But that was when I was
young - two years ago.«
    »Did you ever go with your cousin, Robert Moore?«
    »Yes; once.«
    »What sort of a companion is he on these occasions?«
    »A cousin, you know, is different to a stranger.«
    »I am aware of that; but cousins, if they are stupid, are still more
insupportable than strangers, because you cannot so easily keep them at a
distance. But your cousin is not stupid?«
    »No; but -«
    »Well?«
    »If the company of fools irritates, as you say, the society of clever men
leaves its own peculiar pain also. Where the goodness or talent of your friend
is beyond and above all doubt, your own worthiness to be his associate often
becomes a matter of question«
    »Oh! there I cannot follow you: that crotchet is not one I should choose to
entertain for an instant. I consider myself not unworthy to be the associate of
the best of them - of gentlemen, I mean: though that is saying a great deal.
Where they are good, they are very good, I believe. Your uncle, by-the-by, is
not a bad specimen of the elderly gentleman: I am always glad to see his brown,
keen, sensible old face, either in my own house or any other. Are you fond of
him? Is he kind to you? Now, speak the truth.«
    »He has brought me up from childhood, I doubt not, precisely as he would
have brought up his own daughter, if he had had one; and that is kindness; but I
am not fond of him: I would rather be out of his presence than in it.«
    »Strange! when he has the art of making himself so agreeable.«
    »Yes, in company; but he is stern and silent at home. As he puts away his
cane and shovel-hat in the Rectory-hall, so he locks his liveliness in his
book-case and study-desk: the knitted brow and brief word for the fireside; the
smile, the jest, the witty sally, for society.«
    »Is he tyrannical?«
    »Not in the least: he is neither tyrannical nor hypocritical: he is simply a
man who is rather liberal than goodnatured, rather brilliant than genial, rather
scrupulously equitable than truly just, -