That’s how Mel put it.  Do you think they thought worse of him?  I warrant you he came out of it in flying colours.  Gentlefolks like straight-forwardness in their inferiors—­that’s what they do.  Ah!’ said Kilne, meditatively, ’I see him now, walking across the street in the moonlight, after he ’d told me that.  A fine figure of a man! and there ain’t many Marquises to match him.’

To this Barnes and Grossby, not insensible to the merits of the recital they had just given ear to, agreed.  And with a common voice of praise in the mouths of his creditors, the dead man’s requiem was sounded.

CHAPTER II

THE HERITAGE OF THE SON

Toward evening, a carriage drove up to the door of the muted house, and the card of Lady Racial, bearing a hurried line in pencil, was handed to the widow.

It was when you looked upon her that you began to comprehend how great was the personal splendour of the husband who could eclipse such a woman.  Mrs. Harrington was a tall and a stately dame.  Dressed in the high waists of the matrons of that period, with a light shawl drawn close over her shoulders and bosom, she carried her head well; and her pale firm features, with the cast of immediate affliction on them, had much dignity:  dignity of an unrelenting physical order, which need not express any remarkable pride of spirit.  The family gossips who, on both sides, were vain of this rare couple, and would always descant on their beauty, even when they had occasion to slander their characters, said, to distinguish them, that Henrietta Maria had a Port, and Melchisedec a Presence:  and that the union of a Port and a Presence, and such a Port and such a Presence, was so uncommon, that you might search England through and you would not find another, not even in the highest ranks of society.  There lies some subtle distinction here; due to the minute perceptions which compel the gossips of a family to coin phrases that shall express the nicest shades of a domestic difference.  By a Port, one may understand them to indicate something unsympathetically impressive; whereas a Presence would seem to be a thing that directs the most affable appeal to our poor human weaknesses.  His Majesty King George IV., for instance, possessed a Port:  Beau Brummel wielded a Presence.  Many, it is true, take a Presence to mean no more than a shirt-frill, and interpret a Port as the art of walking erect.  But this is to look upon language too narrowly.

On a more intimate acquaintance with the couple, you acknowledge the, aptness of the fine distinction.  By birth Mrs. Harrington had claims to rank as a gentlewoman.  That is, her father was a lawyer of Lymport.  The lawyer, however, since we must descend the genealogical tree, was known to have married his cook, who was the lady’s mother.  Now Mr. Melchisedec was mysterious concerning his origin; and, in his cups, talked largely and wisely of a great