"It is to me. It came to me this afternoon as I walked across the 'floors' and men touched their caps to me."
"But you can never forget the past," she said.
"But men do forget the past," he answered. "Would you ever imagine for a moment that Lord Probus, for instance, was not to the manner born?"
"I have seen him only two or three times," she answered; "but it seems to me that he is always trying to be a lord, which proves——"
"Which proves what?"
"Well, you see, a man who is really a gentleman does not try to be one. He is one, and there's an end of it; he hasn't to try."
"Oh, I see. Then forgetting the past is all a pretence?"
"A man may forget his poverty, but I do not think he can forget his parents. You need not remember where mother died, but how she and father lived; their goodness is our greatest fortune."
He did not make any further reply then, and a little later he put on his hat and said—
"I am going along to see William. He went home poorly this morning."