‘Of course not, but we might, if only you’d read sensible books that I could give you.’ Adela shook her head. The philosophical youth sank into his favourite attitude--legs extended, hands in pockets, nose in air. ‘So, I suppose,’ he said presently, ‘that fellow really has been ill?’ Adela was sitting in thought; she looked up with a shadow of annoyance on her face. ‘That fellow?’ ‘Eldon, you know.’ ‘I want to ask you a question,’ said his sister, interlocking her fingers and pressing them against her throat. ‘Why do you always speak in a contemptuous way of Mr. Eldon?’ ‘You know I don’t like the individual.’ ‘What cause has “the individual” given you?’ ‘He’s a snob.’ ‘I’m not sure that I know what that means,’ replied Adela, after thinking for a moment with downcast eyes. ‘Because you never read anything. He’s a fellow who raises a great edifice of pretence on rotten foundations.’ ‘What can you mean? Mr. Eldon is a gentleman. What pretence is he guilty of?’ ‘Gentleman!’ uttered her brother with much scorn. ‘Upon my word, that _is_ the vulgarest of denominations! Who doesn’t call himself so nowadays! A man’s a man, I take it, and what need is there to lengthen the name? Thank the powers, we don’t live in feudal ages. Besides, he doesn’t seem to me to be what you imply.’ Adela had taken a book; in turning over the pages, she said-- ‘No doubt you mean, Alfred, that, for some reason, you are determined to view him with prejudice.’ ‘The reason is obvious enough. The fellow’s behaviour is detestable; he looks at you from head to foot as if you were applying for a place in his stable. Whenever I want an example of a contemptible aristocrat, there’s Eldon ready-made. Contemptible, because he’s such a sham; as if everybody didn’t know his history and his circumstances!’ ‘Everybody doesn’t regard them as you do. There is nothing whatever dishonourable in his position.’ ‘Not in sponging on a rich old plebeian, a man he despises, and living in idleness at his expense?’ ‘I don’t believe Mr. Eldon does anything of the kind. Since his brother’s death he has had a sufficient income of his own, so mother says.’