I have said he read no books, and this, on the whole, is
true, but nevertheless he did know something about the history of the
early part of the century, and he was rather fond at political
gatherings of making some allusion to Mr. Fox. His father had sat in
the House of Commons when Fox was there, and had sternly opposed the
French war. I don't suppose that anybody not actually IN IT--no
Londoner certainly--can understand the rigidity of the bonds which
restricted county society when I was young, and for aught I know may
restrict it now. There was with us one huge and dark exception to
the general uniformity. The earl had broken loose, had ruined his
estate, had defied decorum and openly lived with strange women at
home and in Paris, but this black background did but set off the
otherwise universal adhesion to the Church and to authorised manners,
an adhesion tempered and rendered tolerable by port wine. It must
not, however, be supposed that human nature was different from the
human nature of to-day or a thousand years ago. There were then,
even as there were a thousand years ago, and are to-day, small,
secret doors, connected with mysterious staircases, by which access
was gained to freedom; and men and women, inmates of castles with
walls a yard thick, and impenetrable portcullises, sought those doors
and descended those stairs night and day.
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