CHAPTER XXXVII 555 had done, that name was immediately taken up.
" This St. John, then, is your cousin?" " Yes." " You have spoken of him often: do you like him?" " He was a very good man, sir; I could not help liking him."
" A good man. Does that mean a respectable well-conducted man of fifty? Or what does it mean?"
" St John was only twenty-nine, sir."
"' Jeune encore,' as the French say. Is he a person of low stature, phlegmatic, and plain. A person whose goodness consists rather in his guiltlessness of vice, than in his prowess in virtue."
" He is untiringly active. Great and exalted deeds are what he lives to perform."
" But his brain? That is probably rather soft? He means well: but you shrug your shoulders to hear him talk?"
" He talks little, sir: what he does say is ever to the point. His brain is first-rate, I should think not impressible, but vigorous."
" Is he an able man, then?" " Truly able." " A thoroughly educated man?" " St. John is an accomplished and profound scholar."