He spoke in the half-jesting way characteristic of the modern Mentor.

The old didactics have long gone out of fashion, and the moralist of to-day, instead of preaching, _ore retundo_, must only "hint a fault and hesitate dislike." But, hide it as he might, there was an ethical and religious passion in French that would out, and was soon indeed to drive him from Eton to a town parish.
He had been ordained some two years before this date.
It was this inborn pastoral gift, just as real as the literary or artistic gifts, and containing the same potentialities of genius as they which was leading him to feel a deep anxiety about the Barnes's _menage_.

It seemed to him necessary that Daphne should respect her husband; and Roger, in a state of complete idleness, was not altogether respectable.
So, with much quizzing of him as "the Squire," French tried to goad his companion into some of a Squire's duties.

"Stand for the County Council, old fellow," he said.

"Your father was on it, and it'll give you something to do." To his surprise Roger at once acquiesced.