Nor do I wish to root up your ancient family.
If I prize not your boast of family honours and pedigree, I would not willingly destroy them; more than I would pull down a moss-grown tower, or hew to the ground an ancient oak, save for the straightening of the common path, and advantage of the public.

I have, therefore, no resentment against the humbled House of Peveril--nay, I have regard to it in its depression." He here made a second pause, as if he expected Julian to say something.
But notwithstanding the ardour with which the young man had pressed his suit, he was too much trained in ideas of the importance of his family, and in the better habit of respect for his parents, to hear, without displeasure, some part of Bridgenorth's discourse.
"The House of Peveril," he replied, "was never humbled." "Had you said the sons of that House had never been _humble_," answered Bridgenorth, "you would have come nearer the truth .-- Are _you_ not humbled?
Live you not here, the lackey of a haughty woman, the play-companion of an empty youth?
If you leave this Isle, and go to the Court of England, see what regard will there be paid to the old pedigree that deduces your descent from kings and conquerors.

A scurril or obscene jest, an impudent carriage, a laced cloak, a handful of gold, and the readiness to wager it on a card, or a die, will better advance you at the Court of Charles, than your father's ancient name, and slavish devotion of blood and fortune to the cause of _his_ father." "That is, indeed, but too probable," said Peveril; "but the Court shall be no element of mine.

I will live like my fathers, among my people, care for their comforts, decide their differences----" "Build Maypoles, and dance around them," said Bridgenorth, with another of those grim smiles which passed over his features like the light of a sexton's torch, as it glares and is reflected by the window of the church, when he comes from locking a funeral vault.

"No, Julian, these are not times in which, by the dreaming drudgery of a country magistrate, and the petty cares of a country proprietor, a man can serve his unhappy country.