"Possibly," answered he, diving into the core of his apple.
"No, but tell me;--I want to know what you think."
"Cultivation and refinement have taught people to recognize and analyze and imitate it; the counterfeits are most current in that society,--but as to the reality I don't know--it is nature's work and she is a little freaky about it."
"But Guy!" said his mother impatiently;--"this is not selling but giving away one's birthright. Where is the advantage of birth if breeding is not supposed to go along with it. Where the parents have had intelligence and refinement do we not constantly see them inherited by the children? and in an increasing degree from generation to generation?"
"Very extraordinary!" said Mrs. Thorn.
"I do not undervalue the blessings of inheritance, mother, believe me, nor deny the general doctrine; though intelligence does not always descend, and manners die out, and that invaluable legacy, a name, may be thrown away. But this delicate thing we are speaking of is not intelligence nor refinement, but comes rather from a happy combination of qualities, together with a peculiarly fine nervous constitution;--the essence of it may consist with an omission, even with an awkwardness, and with a sad ignorance of conventionalities."
"But even if that be so, do you think it can ever reach its full development but in the circumstances that are favourable to it?" said Mrs. Evelyn.
"Probably not often; the diamond in some instances wants the graver;--but it is the diamond. Nature seems now and then to have taken a princess's child and dropped it in some odd corner of the kingdom, while she has left the clown in the palace."
"From all which I understand," said Mr. Thorn, "that this little chestnut girl is a princess in disguise."
"Really, Carleton!"--Rossitur began.