"That is all going away."
"Would that it could be made to go a little faster. It may be helped in its going. It may be that in these days the progress shall be accelerated. But you will let me write to Hampstead and say that you will come." She assented, and so that part of the little dinner-party was arranged.
After that she herself contrived to see the Quaker one evening on his return home. "Yes," said Mr. Fay; "I have heard thy proposition from Marion. Why should the young lord desire such a one as I am to sit at his table?"
"He is George's intimate friend."
"That thy son should choose his friend well, I surely believe, because I see him to be a prudent and wise young man, who does not devote himself over-much to riotous amusements." George did occasionally go to a theatre, thereby offending the Quaker's judgment, justifying the "overmuch," and losing his claim to a full measure of praise. "Therefore I will not quarrel with him that he has chosen his friend from among the great ones of the earth. But like to like is a good motto. I fancy that the weary draught-horse, such as I am, should not stable himself with hunters and racers."
"This young man affects the society of such as yourself and George, rather than that of others nobly born as himself."
"I do not know that he shows his wisdom the more."
"You should give him credit at any rate for good endeavours."
"It is not for me to judge him one way or the other. Did he ask that Marion should also go to his house?"
"Certainly. Why should not the child see something of the world that may amuse her?"