‘I do not believe it in the least, my lord,’ said Roger somewhat angrily.

’That is because you are so carried away by enthusiasm at the present moment as to ignore the ordinary rules of life.  There are not, perhaps, many fathers who have Regans and Gonerils for their daughters;—­but there are very many who may take a lesson from the folly of the old king.  “Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown,” the fool said to him, “when thou gav’st thy golden one away.”  The world, I take it, thinks that the fool was right.’

The Bishop did so far succeed that Roger abandoned the idea of settling his property on Paul Montague’s children.  But he was not on that account the less resolute in his determination...