“I think you did agree with it till you knew that it applied to Miss Hauton’s case,” said Mr. Percy: “as well as I remember, Godfrey, I heard you once answer on a similar occasion, ‘No, no--I will have nothing to do with any of the daughters of that mother--black cats have black kittens’--or ‘black dogs have black puppies’--I forget which you said.” “Whichever it was, I am ashamed of having quoted such a vulgar proverb,” said Godfrey. “It may be a vulgar proverb, but I doubt whether it be a vulgar error,” said Mr. Percy: “I have great faith in the wisdom of nations. So much so in the present instance, that I own I would rather a son of mine were to marry a well-conducted farmer’s daughter of _honest parentage_, than the daughter of an ill-conducted lady of rank or fashion. The farmer’s daughter might be trained into a gentlewoman, and might make my son at least a faithful wife, which is more than he could expect, or than I should expect, from the young lady, who had early seen the example of what was bad, and whose predispositions would be provided with the excuse of the old song.” Godfrey took fire at this, and exclaimed against the injustice of a doctrine which would render wretched for life many young women who might possess every amiable and estimable quality, and who could never remedy the misfortune of their birth. Godfrey urged, that whilst this would render the good miserable, it would be the most probable means of driving the weak from despair into vice. Rosamond eagerly joined her brother’s side of the question. Mr. Percy, though he knew, he said, that he must appear one of the “fathers with flinty hearts,” protested that he felt great compassion for the unfortunate individuals, as much as a man who was not in love with any of them could reasonably be expected to feel.