“Just the one,” said Mr. Ashhurst, smiling, “that you seem so much to dread—‘all sorts of boys.’ Manliness of character, that first point in education, is only to be acquired by throwing a boy early on himself. Of course it is a parent’s duty to watch over his child; and to cultivate the higher moral feelings is the home part of the business. But to make him _hardy_ and vigorous in mind as well as body is the great object of out-door education.” “But, my dear sir, you would not wish your son to acquire unrefined habits and boorish manners, which he must, if you condemn him to mix with his inferiors, by way of making him hardy, as you call it.” “By no means,” replied Mr. Ashhurst. “But I am very far from thinking that I condemn him to mix with his inferiors, when I let him find his own footing among his equals, and perhaps superiors. And I look to the influence of home for the refinement of his habits and manners.” Mrs. Harrington had been a little annoyed at the turn the conversation had taken—not that it altered her views and opinions in the least, what conversation ever does—but that her husband happened to be present; and as he occasionally indulged in some slap against the “white-kid gentry,” she feared Mr. Ashhurst’s arguments might meet a more ready acquiescence than she desired, so saying, “Well, we must talk this over another time,” hastily turned the subject, and there the matter dropped. “Ashhurst is a sensible man,” observed Mr. Harrington to his wife as they walked home. “Yes,” she replied, well knowing the track her husband’s mind was on, and shaping her answer to meet it. “Yes, he’s a sensible, though a coarse man.” Mr. Harrington’s countenance changed. “I am sorry,” she continued, “that he is unwilling to give Francis the best advantages; but I presume he cannot afford it very well. He has a large family. And though he did not like to acknowledge it, the terms are an object to him.” “Of course,” said Mr. Harrington, in a tone of approbation that alarmed her. “I am satisfied,” she continued, “that the ‘Institute’ is the best place for Arthur. The Howards, and the Harpers, and the Astleys and Langdons all speak of it in the highest manner, and their boys have been there several years.” Mr. Harrington could not withstand this. The names his wife had mentioned, and purposely mentioned, were those of some of the wealthiest men in the community. They were men after whose names he took pride in placing his on a subscription list—or seeing them lovingly associated in the papers as bank directors, or as trustees for life, fire, trust, or any other monied institutions, and so, on the same principle, he relaxed at once, and saw with complacency his Arthur placed among the select few, the dimes fresh from the mint of “good society.”