"I have engaged a lady to live with us here at Darrell Court, whose duties will be to finish your education, or, rather, I may truthfully say, to begin it, to train you in the habits of refined society, to--to--make you presentable, in fact, Pauline, which I am sorry, really sorry to say, you are not at present." She made him a low bow--a bow full of defiance and rebellion. "I am indeed indebted to you, Sir Oswald." "No trifling," said the stately baronet, "no sarcasm, Pauline, but listen to me! You are not without sense or reason--pray attend. Look around you," he continued; "remember that the broad fair lands of Darrell Court form one of the grandest domains in England. It is an inheritance almost royal in its extent and magnificence. Whoso reigns here is king or queen of half a county, is looked up to, respected, honored, admired, and imitated. The owner of Darrell Court is a power even in this powerful land of ours; men and women look up to such a one for guidance and example. Judge then what the owner of the inheritance should be." The baronet's grand old face was flushed with emotion. "He must be pure, or he would make immorality the fashion; honorable, because men will take their notions of honor from him; just, that justice may abound; upright, stainless. You see all that, Pauline?" "Yes," she assented, quickly. "No men have so much to answer for," continued Sir Oswald, "as the great ones of the land--men in whose hands power is vested--men to whom others look for example, on whose lives other lives are modeled--men who, as it were, carry the minds, if not the souls, of their fellow men in the hollows of their hands." Pauline looked more impressed, and insensibly drew nearer to him. "Such men, I thank Heaven," he said, standing bareheaded as he uttered the words, "have the Darrells been--loyal, upright, honest, honorable, of stainless repute, of stainless life, fitted to rule their fellow men--grand men, sprung from a grand old race. And at times women have reigned here--women whose names have lived in the annals of the land--who have been as shining lights from the purity, the refinement, the grandeur of their lives." He spoke with a passion of eloquence not lost on the girl by his side. "I," he continued, humbly, "am one of the least worthy of my race. I have done nothing for its advancement; but at the same time I have done nothing to disgrace it. I have carried on the honors passively. The time is coming when Darrell Court must pass into other hands. Now, Pauline, you have heard, you know what the ruler of Darrell Court should be. Tell me, are you fitted to take your place here?" "I am very young," she murmured.