Jack had promised to remain with him for a few days, and Sophie Mellerby, who had altogether given up her London season, was to stay with the widow till something should be settled as to a future residence. "If my aunt will only say that she will keep the house for a couple of years, she shall have it," said Fred to the young lady,--perhaps wishing to postpone for so long a time the embarrassment of the large domain; but to this Lady Scroope would not consent. If allowed she would remain till the end of July. By that time she would find herself a home. "For the life of me, I don't know how to begin my life," said the new peer to his brother as they were walking about the park together. "Do not think about beginning it at all. You won't be angry, and will know what I mean, when I say that you should avoid thinking too much of your own position." "How am I to help thinking of it? It is so entirely changed from what it was." "No Fred,--not entirely; nor as I hope, is it changed at all in those matters which are of most importance to you. A man's self, and his ideas of the manner in which he should rule himself, should be more to him than any outward accidents. Had that cousin of ours never died--" "I almost wish he never had." "It would then have been your ambition to live as an honourable gentleman. To be that now should be more to you than to be an Earl and a man of fortune." "It's very easy to preach, Jack. You were always good at that. But here I am, and what am I to do? How am I to begin? Everybody says that I am to change nothing. The tenants will pay their rents, and Burnaby will look after things outside, and Mrs. Bunce will look after the things inside, and I may sit down and read a novel. When the gloom of my uncle's death has passed away, I suppose I shall buy a few more horses and perhaps begin to make a row about the pheasants. I don't know what else there is to do." "You'll find that there are duties." "I suppose I shall. Something is expected of me. I am to keep up the honour of the family; but it really seems to me that the best way of doing so would be to sit in my uncle's arm chair and go to sleep as he did." "As a first step in doing something you should get a wife for yourself. If once you had a settled home, things would arrange themselves round you very easily." "Ah, yes;--a wife. You know, Jack, I told you about that girl in County Clare." "You must let nothing of that kind stand in your way." "Those are your ideas of high moral grandeur! Just now my own personal conduct was to be all in all to me, and the rank nothing. Now I am to desert a girl I love because I am an English peer." "What has passed between you and the young lady, of course I do not know."