Horace at this time by letter again urges Noll to get him forthwith and for awhile to Paris and live amongst the clouds--puts it in terms of poetry and of romance and of pounds shillings and pence--essaying all the temptations. His letter ends on the Horatian note: “And, my dear old Noll, do, for the love of art, go and see my people. My old father has urgings to speak on the Liberty of the Press--England’s great Heritage of Freedom--the Source of her Magnificence, of her Benignant Purity--which through Journalism has built up the Conscience of the People--Tol-lol-der-rol-lol-der-rol-lay--and all the rest of it. You know the thumping music of the National Organ when all the stops are out. Now, do give Doome some aid in educating the dear old sire in letters. Look what revolution he hath wrought in English furnishments! The father’s name; is it not become the household word for the artistic home? And why? Because _he discovered the Man_ who could tell him what was good furnishment. He himself at inmost heart prefers the cuckoo-clock.... And the girls too, thou canst widen their view, enlarge the outlook of their narrow Putney eyes; your good-fellowship must of a certainty mitigate their cockney ambitions. They write to me of ‘cutting’ people--‘giving the cold shoulder’ to old friends--they are bitten with all the smart vulgarities, for all the world like _déclassé_ duchesses and such as are not of assured position. Get thee to my father’s house, Noll--and bear with the overplus of marble, the gaudy boastfulness of the too ornate enrichments. There’s a big heart at the back of it all, and it loves thee. HORACE. P.S.--I never suspected Jonkin of being a prude. He makes me feel thrillingly immoral--like a school-girl reading her first classic.” When Noll arrived at the Malahides in the afternoon, Sir Pompey was away from home; but the ladies of the house greeted him gladly. He had not been long with the two young women before he was overwhelmed with the embarrassment of their frank admiration. The elder girl caused him no little uneasiness by her attitude towards him; which the buxom Miss Mary further increased by very soon and most openly expressing her design to find solace in the society of a youth from the city who was to escort her to some shopping, adding boldly that the figure of two had in it more likely elements of good company than the awkward wriggle called three; and, with a suggestive laugh, she swaggered out of the room. Noll was never wholly at home amongst the crudities; but he shook off embarrassment, and made an effort to entertain the comely Judith. But ordinary converse died a natural death--Judith Malahide was in no mood for words. She held the handsome young fellow with her handsome eyes; she was unwontedly quiet, and, for marvellous and becoming change, her bearing was restrained with the compelling dignity of passion.