"I don't say I care any more for Mr. Vardon than for anybody else; I haven't seen enough of him to know whether I care for him or not. But if ever I _do_ care for anybody, it will be for somebody like him, and not for somebody like Lord St. Ives or Monty Fitzroy. I don't like the men I meet in town; they all talk to us as if we were dolls or babies. I don't want to marry a man who says to himself, as Surrey says already, 'Ah, I shall look out for some rich girl or other and make her a countess, if she's a good girl, and if she suits me.' I'd rather have a man like Mr. Vardon than any of the men we ever meet in London." "But, my darling," said Lady Surrey, quite alarmed at Gladys' too serious tone, "surely there are gentlemen quite as clever and quite as intellectual as Mr. Vardon." "Mamma!" cried Gladys, rising, "do you mean to say Mr. Vardon is not a gentleman?" "Gladys, Gladys! sit down, dear. Don't get so excited. Of course he is. I trust I have as great a respect as anybody for talent and culture. But what I meant to say was this--can't you find as much talent and culture among people of our own station as--as among people of Mr. Vardon's?" "No," said Gladys shortly. "Really, my dear, you are too hard upon the peerage." "Well, mamma, can you mention any one that we know who is?" asked the peremptory girl. "Not exactly in our own set," said Lady Surrey hesitatingly; "but surely there must be _some_." "I don't know them," Gladys replied quietly, "and till I _do_ know them, I shall remain of my own opinion still. If you wish me not to see so much of Mr. Vardon, I shall try to do as you say; but if I happen to like any particular person, whether he's a peer or a ploughboy, I can't help liking him, so there's an end of it." And Gladys kissed her mother demurely on the forehead, and walked with a stately sweep out of the room.