"Have common sense taught from the beginning in the schools, the reasons of things explained to the children. If you knew the frightful ignorance upon all the subjects that matter which prevails among my class, for instance! They have false perspectives about everything--not because they are bad; in the mass they are much better than you--but because they are so frightfully ignorant of the meaning of even the little they have learnt. Everything has a false value for them. There is hardly a subject that they can see straightly about; they are muffled and blighted with shams and hypocrisies." "You should address meetings among them." "They would not listen to me for a moment; the truths I would tell them would wound their vanity; it would only be in the schools among the children that anything effectual could be done." "You think so?" "Oh, yes, I know--My own sisters and brothers are examples. I could never teach them anything, and there are millions in England just like them. Good as gold--and stupid as owls." "It does not sound hopeful, then." "No, the rust has gone too far; there should have been no education at all, or a better one--but the present system looks as if it would swamp England if the children are not taught things soon." "You are a Tory, it would seem." "No, I don't think I am. I think everyone has an equal right, but only according to his capacity; and I certainly don't think the scum of the earth of idiots and wastrels have equal rights with hardworking, sensible artisans." "Indeed, no?--Go on!" "I think aristocrats are things apart from the opportunities they have had, and should know it, and keep up the prestige and make their order a great goal to strive for. You see, if they were stamped out, it would be like cutting down all the old trees in Kensington Gardens; they could not be produced again for hundreds of years, and all the beauty and dignity of the gardens would be gone. But aristocrats ought to act as such, and never slip into the gutter." "There you are certainly right. I am more than with you--But what can one do?" "You should have the courage of your opinions, as Her Ladyship has--you only laugh when she is saying splendid things sometimes. So few of you seem to have any backbone that I have seen." "You shame me!" Her face became filled with a humorous expression--they had been serious long enough, she thought. His caught the light of her eyes; he was intensely fascinated. "You did not, of course, come from--Bindon's Green--is it?--You came down from Parnassus to teach us poor devils of aristocrats to stick to our guns--I will be your first disciple, priestess of wisdom!" "It is five minutes to four, sir--it will be quite impossible to finish that pile of papers to-day--And I _did_ come from Bindon's Green--and I am going back there by the six o'clock train from Victoria, to a supper party at my home--That is why my hair is crimped and I have on this new blouse."