Puzzled Tom looked up into his old friend's face. "I don't understand you, sir," he said, faintly; adding, with emphasis, "There is nothing that I would not do, not inconsistent with honesty and the honour of a gentleman."
"Ah, there it is! I said I thought the objection would be insuperable; for, of course, you would consider it a great sacrifice of the honour, and a great lowering of the dignity, of a gentleman to go into trade."
"Trade, Mr. Elliston?"
"Yes, trade. Look you here, Mr. Grigson, my money was made in trade. My father and my grandfather before him were in trade. In my early life, I was in trade, and if you have Kate for a wife, you must go into trade too. You are cut out for it; you have good common sense, a clear head, and a cool one. You have plenty of pluck, and plenty of industry, if well applied. The old firm with which I first became connected forty years ago, and a prosperous one it is still, wants an active partner. You will do as well as another, and better. If you choose to put your aristocratic notions into your pocket and go in for trade, I will furnish the capital wanted, and you shall have Kate into the bargain."
Tom looked rueful enough. The Grigsons, the old county family, that might have come in with the Conqueror, for anything that can be told, had never suffered the contamination of trade. They had been in the Church (one of them a bishop), in the law (one of them a judge), in the army (one of them a general); but in trade, never. So Tom thought. And then he asked, falteringly—
"Wouldn't it do if I were to go into farming, sir? My brother's largest farm, Broad Lees, eight hundred acres or more, will soon be vacant; at any rate, the lease will be out next Michaelmas; and I have had a talk with Dick about it. I should like that better than going into trade, Mr. Elliston."
"I daresay you would; and you would like to be a gentleman farmer, I have no doubt. You could hunt and shoot and ride, and make ducks and drakes of your money—that is, if you had the handling of any; and in three years you would be—well, I won't say where. But, nice as you think it, I can tell you, you would never make money at that sort of work, nor even keep it; at least, that is the opinion I have formed. No, no, my dear fellow; I stick to my first offer. Take it or leave it."
"And Kate—Miss Elliston, I mean—does she ap-ap-prove of your decision, sir?"
"She submits to it, at any rate."
"I should like to consult my brother about it," said Tom, on whom the unexpected proposal had produced an extraordinary effect, not to be easily understood by any who are not intimately acquainted with the strong feeling, bordering on absolute contempt, with which certain persons—some educated, some uneducated—look down upon trade and traders.