His sisters, weeping for their father and holding aloof from his ashes, Evan swept from his mind.

He called up the man his father was: the kindliness, the readiness, the gallant gaiety of the great Mel.

Youths are fascinated by the barbarian virtues; and to Evan, under present influences, his father was a pattern of manhood.

He asked himself: Was it infamous to earn one's bread?
and answered it very strongly in his father's favour.

The great Mel's creditors were not by to show him another feature of the case.
Hitherto, in passive obedience to the indoctrination of the Countess, Evan had looked on tailors as the proscribed race of modern society.
He had pitied his father as a man superior to his fate; but despite the fitfully honest promptings with Rose (tempting to him because of the wondrous chivalry they argued, and at bottom false probably as the hypocrisy they affected to combat), he had been by no means sorry that the world saw not the spot on himself.