heldthe
living
since
my
father
's
death
died
precisely
at
that
moment
.
I
felt
myself
booked
,
and
gave
in
to
various
friends
;
but
it
is
second
best
.
'
She
felt
a
certain
soreness
and
discomfort
in
his
tone
,
as
though
his
talk
represented
a
good
deal
of
mental
struggle
in
the
past
.
'
But
the
country
is
not
idleness
,
'
she
said
,
smiling
at
him
.
Her
cheek
was
leaning
lightly
on
her
hand
,
her
eyes
had
an
unusual
animation
;
and
her
long
white
dress
,
guiltless
of
any
ornament
save
a
small
old-fashioned
locket
hanging
from
a
thin
old
chain
and
a
pair
of
hair
bracelets
with
engraved
gold
clasps
,
gave
her
the
nobleness
and
simplicity
of
a
Romney
picture
.
'
You
do
not
find
it
so
,
I
imagine
,
'
he
replied
,
bending
forward
to
her
with
a
charming
gesture
of
homage
.
He
would
have
liked
her
to
talk
to
him
of
her
work
and
her
interests
.
He
,
too
,
mentally
compared
her
to
Saint
Elizabeth
.
He
could
almost
have
fancied
the
dark
red
flowers
in
her
white
lap
.
But
his
comparison
had
another
basis
of
feeling
than
Rose
's
.
However
,
she
would
not
talk
to
him
of
herself
.
The
way
in
which
she
turned
the
conversation
brought
home
to
his
own
expansive
confiding
nature
a
certain
austerity
and
stiffness
of
fibre
in
her
which
for
the
moment
chilled
him
.
But
as
he
got
her
into
talk
about
the
neighbourhood
,
the
people
and
their
ways
,
the
impression
vanished
again
,
so
far
at
least
as
there
was
anything
repellent
about
it
.
Austerity
,
strength
,
individuality
,
all
these
words
indeed
he
was
more
and
more
driven
to
apply
to
her
.
She
was
like
no
other
woman
he
had
ever
seen
.
It
was
not
at
all
that
she
was
more
remarkable
intellectually
.
Every
now
and
then
,
indeed
,
as
their
talk
flowed
on
,
he
noticed
in
what
she
said
an
absence
of
a
good
many
interests
and
attainments
which
in
his
ordinary
south-country
women
friends
he
would
have
assumed
as
a
matter
of
course
.
'
I
understand
French
very
little
,
and
I
never
read
any
,
'
she
said
to
him
once
,
quietly
,
as
he
fell
to
comparing
some
peasant
story
she
had
told
him
with
an
episode
in
one
of
George
Sand
's
Berry
novels
.
It
seemed
to
him
that
she
knew
her
Wordsworth
by
heart
.
And
her
own
mountain
life
,
her
own
rich
and
meditative
soul
,
had
taught
her
judgments
and
comments
on
her
favourite
poet
which
stirred
Elsmere
every
now
and
then
to
enthusiasm
—
so
true
they
were
and
pregnant
,
so
full
often
of
a
natural
magic
of
expression
.
On
the
other
hand
,
when
he
quoted
a
very
well-known
line
of
Shelley
's
she
asked
him
where
it
came
from
.
She
seemed
to
him
deeper
and
simpler
at
every
moment
;
her
very
limitations
of
sympathy
and
knowledge
,
and
they
were
evidently
many
,
began
to
attract
him
.
The
thought
of
her
ancestry
crossed
him
now
and
then
,
rousing
in
him
now
wonder
,
and
now
a
strange
sense
of
congruity
and
harmony
.
Clearly
she
was
the
daughter
of
a
primitive
unexhausted
race
.
And
yet
what
purity
,
what
refinement
,
what
delicate
perception
and
self-restraint
!
Presently
they
fell
on
the
subject
of
Oxford
.
'
Were
you
ever
there
?
'
he
asked
her
.
'
Once
,
'
she
said
.
'
I
went
with
my
father
one
summer
term
.
I
have
only
a
confused
memory
of
it
—
of
the
quadrangles
,
and
a
long
street
,
a
great
building
with
a
dome
,
and
such
beautiful
trees
!
'
'
Did
your
father
often
go
back
?
'
'
No
;
never
towards
the
latter
part
of
his
life
'
—
and
her
clear
eyes
clouded
a
little
;
'
nothing
made
him
so
sad
as
the
thought
of
Oxford
.
'
She
paused
,
as
though
she
had
strayed
on
to
a
topic
where
expression
was
a
little
difficult
.
Then
his
face
and
clerical
dress
seemed
somehow
to
reassure
her
,
and
she
began
again
,
though
reluctantly
.
'
He
used
to
say
that
it
was
all
so
changed
.
The
young
fellows
he
saw
when
he
went
back
scorned
everything
he
cared
for
.
Every
visit
to
Oxford
was
like
a
stab
to
him
.
It
seemed
to
him
as
if
the
place
was
full
of
men
who
only
wanted
to
destroy
and
break
down
everything
that
was
sacred
to
him
.
'
Elsmere
reflected
that
Richard
Leyburn
must
have
left
Oxford
about
the
beginning
of
the
Liberal
reaction
,
which
followed
Tractarianism
,
and
in
twenty
years
transformed
the
University
.
'
Ah
!
'
he
said
,
smiling
gently
.
'
He
should
have
lived
a
little
longer
.
There
is
another
turn
of
the
tide
since
then
.
The
destructive
wave
has
spent
itself
,
and
at
Oxford
now
many
of
us
feel
ourselves
on
the
upward
swell
of
a
religious
revival
.
'
Catherine
looked
up
at
him
with
a
sweet
sympathetic
look
.
That
dim
vision
of
Oxford
,
with
its
gray
,
tree-lined
walls
,
lay
very
near
to
her
heart
for
her
father
's
sake
.
And
the
keen
face
above
her
seemed
to
satisfy
and
respond
to
her
inner
feeling
.
'
I
know
the
High
Church
influence
is
very
strong
,
'
she
said
,
hesitating
;
'
but
I
do
n't
know
whether
father
would
have
liked
that
much
better
.
'
The
last
words
had
slipped
out
of
her
,
and
she
checked
herself
suddenly
.
Robert
saw
that
she
was
uncertain
as
to
his
opinions
,
and
afraid
lest
she
might
have
said
something
discourteous
.
'
It
is
not
only
the
High
Church
influence
,
'
he
said
quickly
,
'
it
is
a
mixture
of
influences
from
all
sorts
of
quarters
that
has
brought
about
the
new
state
of
things
.
Some
of
the
factors
in
the
change
were
hardly
Christian
at
all
,
by
name
,
but
they
have
all
helped
to
make
men
think
,
to
stir
their
hearts
,
to
win
them
back
to
the
old
ways
.
'
His
voice
had
taken
to
itself
a
singular
magnetism
.
Evidently
the
matters
they
were
discussing
were
matters
in
which
he
felt
a
deep
and
loving
interest
.
His
young
boyish
face
had
grown
grave
;
there
was
a
striking
dignity
and
weight
in
his
look
and
manner
,
which
suddenly
roused
in
Catherine
the
sense
that
she
was
speaking
to
a
man
of
distinction
,
accustomed
to
deal
on
equal
terms
with
the
large
things
of
life
.
She
raised
her
eyes
to
him
for
a
moment
,
and
he
saw
in
them
a
beautiful
,
mystical
light
—
responsive
,
lofty
,
full
of
soul
.
The
next
moment
,
it
apparently
struck
her
sharply
that
their
conversation
was
becoming
incongruous
with
its
surroundings
.
Behind
them
Mrs.
Thornburgh
was
bustling
about
with
candles
and
music-stools
,
preparing
for
a
performance
on
the
flute
by
Mr.
Mayhew
,
the
black-browed
vicar
of
Shanmoor
,
and
the
room
seemed
to
be
pervaded
by
Mrs.
Seaton
's
strident
voice
.
Her
strong
natural
reserve
asserted
itself
,
and
her
face
settled
again
into
the
slight
rigidity
of
expression
characteristic
of
it
.
She
rose
and
prepared
to
move
farther
into
the
room
.
'
We
must
listen
,
'
she
said
to
him
,
smiling
,
over
her
shoulder
.
And
she
left
him
,
settling
herself
by
the
side
of
Mrs.
Leyburn
.
He
had
a
momentary
sense
of
rebuff
.
The
man
,
quick
,
sensitive
,
sympathetic
,
felt
in
the
woman
the
presence
of
a
strength
,
a
self-sufficingness
which
was
not
all
attractive
.
His
vanity
,
if
he
had
cherished
any
during
their
conversation
,
was
not
flattered
by
its
close
.
But
as
he
leant
against
the
window-frame
waiting
for
the
music
to
begin
,
he
could
hardly
keep
his
eyes
from
her
.
He
was
a
man
who
,
by
force
of
temperament
,
made
friends
readily
with
women
,
though
except
for
a
passing
fancy
or
two
he
had
never
been
in
love
;
and
his
sense
of
difficulty
with
regard
to
this
stiffly-mannered
,
deep-eyed
country
girl
brought
with
it
an
unusual
stimulus
and
excitement
.
Miss
Barks
seated
herself
deliberately
,
after
much
fiddling
with
bracelets
and
gloves
,
and
tied
back
the
ends
of
her
cap
behind
her
.
Mr.
Mayhew
took
out
his
flute
and
lovingly
put
it
together
.
He
was
a
powerful
swarthy
man
,
who
said
little
and
was
generally
alarming
to
the
ladies
of
the
neighbourhood
.
To
propitiate
him
,
they
asked
him
to
bring
his
flute
,
and
nervously
praised
the
fierce
music
he
made
on
it
.
Miss
Barks
enjoyed
a
monopoly
of
his
accompaniments
,
and
there
were
many
who
regarded
her
assiduity
as
a
covert
attack
upon
the
widower
's
name
and
position
.
If
so
,
it
was
Greek
meeting
Greek
,
for
with
all
his
taciturnity
the
vicar
of
Shanmoor
was
well
able
to
defend
himself
.
'
Has
it
begun
?
'
said
a
hurried
whisper
at
Elsmere
's
elbow
,
and
turning
he
saw
Rose
and
Agnes
on
the
step
of
the
window
,
Rose
's
cheeks
flushed
by
the
night
breeze
,
a
shawl
thrown
lightly
round
her
head
.
She
was
answered
by
the
first
notes
of
the
flute
,
following
some
powerful
chords
in
which
Miss
Barks
had
tested
at
once
the
strength
of
her
wrists
and
the
vicarage
piano
.
The
girl
made
a
little
moue
of
disgust
,
and
turned
as
though
to
fly
down
the
steps
again
.
But
Agnes
caught
her
and
held
her
,
and
the
mutinous
creature
had
to
submit
to
be
drawn
inside
while
Mrs.
Thornburgh
,
in
obedience
to
complaints
of
draughts
from
Mrs.
Seaton
motioned
to
have
the
window
shut
.
Rose
established
herself
against
the
wall
,
her
curly
head
thrown
back
,
her
eyes
half
shut
,
her
mouth
expressing
an
angry
endurance
.
Robert
watched
her
with
amusement
.
It
was
certainly
a
remarkable
duet
.
After
an
adagio
opening
in
which
flute
and
piano
were
at
magnificent
cross
purposes
from
the
beginning
,
the
two
instruments
plunged
into
an
allegro
very
long
and
very
fast
,
which
became
ultimately
a
desperate
race
between
the
competing
performers
for
the
final
chord
.
Mr.
Mayhew
toiled
away
,
taxing
the
resources
of
his
whole
vast
frame
to
keep
his
small
instrument
in
a
line
with
the
piano
,
and
taxing
them
in
vain
.
For
the
shriller
and
the
wilder
grew
the
flute
,
and
the
greater
the
exertion
of
the
dark
Hercules
performing
on
it
,
the
fiercer
grew
the
pace
of
the
piano
.
Rose
stamped
her
little
foot
.
'
Two
bars
ahead
last
page
,
'
she
murmured
,
'
three
bars
this
:
will
no
one
stop
her
!
'
But
the
pages
flew
past
,
turned
assiduously
by
Agnes
,
who
took
a
sardonic
delight
in
these
performances
,
and
every
countenance
in
the
room
seemed
to
take
a
look
of
sharpened
anxiety
as
to
how
the
duet
was
to
end
,
and
who
was
to
be
victor
.
Nobody
knowing
Miss
Barks
need
to
have
been
in
any
doubt
as
to
that
!
Crash
came
the
last
chord
,
and
the
poor
flute
nearly
half
a
page
behind
was
left
shrilly
hanging
in
mid-air
,
forsaken
and
companionless
,
an
object
of
derision
to
gods
and
men
.
'
Ah
!
I
took
it
a
little
fast
!
'
said
the
lady
,
triumphantly
looking
up
at
the
discomfited
clergyman
.
'
Mr
.
Elsmere
,
'
said
Rose
,
hiding
herself
in
the
window
curtain
beside
him
,
that
she
might
have
her
laugh
in
safety
.
'
Do
they
play
like
that
in
Oxford
,
or
has
Long
Whindale
a
monopoly
?
'
But
before
he
could
answer
,
Mrs.
Thornburgh
called
to
the
girl
—
'
Rose
!
Rose
!
Do
n't
go
out
again
!
It
is
your
turn
next
!
'
Rose
advanced
reluctantly
,
her
head
in
air
.
Robert
,
remembering
something
that
Mrs.
Thornburgh
had
said
to
him
as
to
her
musical
power
,
supposed
that
she
felt
it
an
indignity
to
be
asked
to
play
in
such
company
.
Mrs.
Thornburgh
motioned
to
him
to
come
and
sit
by
Mrs.
Leyburn
,
a
summons
which
he
obeyed
with
the
more
alacrity
,
as
it
brought
him
once
more
within
reach
of
Mrs.
Leyburn
's
eldest
daughter
.
'
Are
you
fond
of
music
,
Mr.
Elsmere
?
'
asked
Mrs.
Leyburn
in
her
little
mincing
voice
,
making
room
for
his
chair
beside
them
.
'
If
you
are
,
I
am
sure
my
youngest
daughter
's
playing
will
please
you
.
'
Catherine
moved
abruptly
.
Robert
,
while
he
made
some
pleasant
answer
,
divined
that
the
reserved
and
stately
daughter
must
be
often
troubled
by
the
mother
's
expansiveness
.
Meanwhile
the
room
was
again
settling
itself
to
listen
.
Mrs.
Seaton
was
severely
turning
over
a
photograph
book
.
In
her
opinion
the
violin
was
an
unbecoming
instrument
for
young
women
.
Miss
Barks
sat
upright
with
the
studiously
neutral
expression
which
befits
the
artist
asked
to
listen
to
a
rival
.
Mr.
Thornburgh
sat
pensive
,
one
foot
drooped
over
the
other
.
He
was
very
fond
of
the
Leyburn
girls
,
but
music
seemed
to
him
,
good
man
,
one
of
the
least
comprehensible
of
human
pleasures
.
As
for
Rose
,
she
had
at
last
arranged
herself
and
her
accompanist
Agnes
,
after
routing
out
from
her
music
a
couple
of
Fantasie-Stücke
,
which
she
had
wickedly
chosen
as
presenting
the
most
severely
classical
contrast
to
the
'
rubbish
'
played
by
the
preceding
performers
.
She
stood
with
her
lithe
figure
in
its
old-fashioned
dress
thrown
out
against
the
black
coats
of
a
group
of
gentlemen
beyond
,
one
slim
arched
foot
advanced
,
the
ends
of
the
blue
sash
dangling
,
the
hand
and
arm
,
beautifully
formed
,
but
still
wanting
the
roundness
of
womanhood
,
raised
high
for
action
,
the
lightly
poised
head
thrown
back
with
an
air
.
Robert
thought
her
a
bewitching
,
half-grown
thing
,
overflowing
with
potentialities
of
future
brilliance
and
empire
.
Her
music
astonished
him
.
Where
had
a
little
provincial
maiden
learned
to
play
with
this
intelligence
,
this
force
,
this
delicate
command
of
her
instrument
?
He
was
not
a
musician
,
and
therefore
could
not
gauge
her
exactly
,
but
he
was
more
or
less
familiar
with
music
and
its
standards
,
as
all
people
become
nowadays
who
live
in
a
highly
cultivated
society
,
and
he
knew
enough
at
any
rate
to
see
that
what
he
was
listening
to
was
remarkable
,
was
out
of
the
common
range
.
Still
more
evident
was
this
,
when
from
the
humorous
piece
with
which
the
sisters
led
off
—
a
dance
of
clowns
,
but
clowns
of
Arcady
—
they
slid
into
a
delicate
rippling
chant
d'amour
,
the
long
drawn
notes
of
the
violin
rising
and
falling
on
the
piano
accompaniment
with
an
exquisite
plaintiveness
.
Where
did
a
fillette
,
unformed
,
inexperienced
,
win
the
secret
of
so
much
eloquence
—
only
from
the
natural
dreams
of
a
girl
's
heart
as
to
'
the
lovers
waiting
in
the
hidden
years
'
?
But
when
the
music
ceased
,
Elsmere
,
after
a
hearty
clap
that
set
the
room
applauding
likewise
,
turned
not
to
the
musician
but
the
figure
beside
Mrs.
Leyburn
,
the
sister
who
had
sat
listening
with
an
impassiveness
,
a
sort
of
gentle
remoteness
of
look
,
which
had
piqued
his
curiosity
.
The
mother
meanwhile
was
drinking
in
the
compliments
of
Dr.
Baker
.
'
Excellent
!
'
cried
Elsmere
.
'
How
in
the
name
of
fortune
,
Miss
Leyburn
,
if
I
may
ask
,
has
your
sister
managed
to
get
on
so
far
in
this
remote
place
?
'
'
She
goes
to
Manchester
every
year
to
some
relations
we
have
there
,
'
said
Catherine
quietly
;
'
I
believe
she
has
been
very
well
taught
.
'
'
But
surely
,
'
he
said
warmly
,
'
it
is
more
than
teaching
—
more
even
than
talent
—
there
is
something
like
genius
in
it
?
'
She
did
not
answer
very
readily
.
'
I
do
n't
know
,
'
she
said
at
last
.
'
Every
one
says
it
is
very
good
.
'
He
would
have
been
repelled
by
her
irresponsiveness
but
that
her
last
words
had
in
them
a
note
of
lingering
,
of
wistfulness
,
as
though
the
subject
were
connected
with
an
inner
debate
not
yet
solved
which
troubled
her
.
He
was
puzzled
,
but
certainly
not
repelled
.
Twenty
minutes
later
everybody
was
going
.
The
Seatons
went
first
,
and
the
other
guests
lingered
awhile
afterwards
to
enjoy
the
sense
of
freedom
left
by
their
departure
.
But
at
last
the
Mayhews
,
father
and
son
,
set
off
on
foot
to
walk
home
over
the
moonlit
mountains
;
the
doctor
tucked
himself
and
his
daughter
into
his
high
gig
,
and
drove
off
with
a
sweeping
ironical
bow
to
Rose
,
who
had
stood
on
the
steps
teasing
him
to
the
last
;
and
Robert
Elsmere
offered
to
escort
the
Miss
Leyburns
and
their
mother
home
.
Mrs.
Thornburgh
was
left
protesting
to
the
vicar
's
incredulous
ears
that
never
—
never
as
long
as
she
lived
—
would
she
have
Mrs.
Seaton
inside
her
doors
again
.
'
Her
manners
—
'
cried
the
vicar
's
wife
,
fuming
—
'
her
manners
would
disgrace
a
Whinborough
shop-girl
.
She
has
none
—
positively
none
!
'
Then
suddenly
her
round
comfortable
face
brightened
and
broadened
out
into
a
beaming
smile
—
'
But
,
after
all
,
William
,
say
what
you
will
—
and
you
always
do
say
the
most
unpleasant
things
you
can
think
of
—
it
was
a
great
success
.
I
know
the
Leyburns
enjoyed
it
.
And
as
for
Robert
,
I
saw
him
looking
—
looking
at
that
little
minx
Rose
while
she
was
playing
as
if
he
could
n't
take
his
eyes
off
her
.
What
a
picture
she
made
,
to
be
sure
!
'
The
vicar
,
who
had
been
standing
with
his
back
to
the
fireplace
and
his
hands
in
his
pockets
,
received
his
wife
's
remarks
first
of
all
with
lifted
eyebrows
,
and
then
with
a
low
chuckle
,
half
scornful
,
half
compassionate
,
which
made
her
start
in
her
chair
.
'
Rose
?
'
he
said
impatiently
.
'
Rose
,
my
dear
,
where
were
your
eyes
?
'
It
was
very
rarely
indeed
that
on
her
own
ground
,
so
to
speak
,
the
vicar
ventured
to
take
the
whip-hand
of
her
like
this
.
Mrs.
Thornburgh
looked
at
him
in
amazement
.
'
Do
you
mean
to
say
,
'
he
asked
,
in
raised
tones
,
'
that
you
did
n't
notice
that
from
the
moment
you
first
introduced
Robert
to
Catherine
Leyburn
,
he
had
practically
no
attention
for
anybody
else
?
'
Mrs.
Thornburgh
gazed
at
him
—
her
memory
flew
back
over
the
evening
—
and
her
impulsive
contradiction
died
on
her
lips
.
It
was
now
her
turn
to
ejaculate
—
'
Catherine
!
'
she
said
feebly
.
'
Catherine
!
how
absurd
!
'
But
she
turned
and
,
with
quickened
breath
,
looked
out
of
[
the
]
window
after
the
retreating
figures
.
Mrs.
Thornburgh
went
up
to
bed
that
night
an
inch
taller
.
She
had
never
felt
herself
more
exquisitely
indispensable
,
more
of
a
personage
.
CHAPTER
IV
Before
,
however
,
we
go
on
to
chronicle
the
ultimate
success
or
failure
of
Mrs.
Thornburgh
as
a
match-maker
,
it
may
be
well
to
inquire
a
little
more
closely
into
the
antecedents
of
the
man
who
had
suddenly
roused
so
much
activity
in
her
contriving
mind
.
And
,
indeed
,
these
antecedents
are
important
to
us
.
For
the
interest
of
an
uncomplicated
story
will
entirely
depend
upon
the
clearness
with
which
the
reader
may
have
grasped
the
general
outlines
of
a
quick
soul
's
development
.
And
this
development
had
already
made
considerable
progress
before
Mrs.
Thornburgh
set
eyes
upon
her
husband
's
cousin
,
Robert
Elsmere
.
Robert
Elsmere
,
then
,
was
well
born
and
fairly
well
provided
with
this
world
's
goods
;
up
to
a
certain
moderate
point
,
indeed
,
a
favourite
of
fortune
in
all
respects
.
His
father
belonged
to
the
younger
line
of
an
old
Sussex
family
,
and
owed
his
pleasant
country
living
to
the
family
instincts
of
his
uncle
,
Sir
William
Elsmere
,
in
whom
Whig
doctrines
and
Conservative
traditions
were
pretty
evenly
mixed
,
with
a
result
of
the
usual
respectable
and
inconspicuous
kind
.
His
virtues
had
descended
mostly
to
his
daughters
,
while
all
his
various
weaknesses
and
fatuities
had
blossomed
into
vices
in
the
person
of
his
eldest
son
and
heir
,
the
Sir
Mowbray
Elsmere
of
Mrs.
Seaton
's
early
recollections
.
Edward
Elsmere
,
rector
of
Murewell
in
Surrey
,
and
father
of
Robert
,
had
died
before
his
uncle
and
patron
;
and
his
widow
and
son
had
been
left
to
face
the
world
together
.
Sir
William
Elsmere
and
his
nephew
's
wife
had
not
much
in
common
,
and
rarely
concerned
themselves
with
each
other
.
Mrs.
Elsmere
was
an
Irishwoman
by
birth
,
with
irregular
Irish
ways
,
and
a
passion
for
strange
garments
,
which
made
her
the
dread
of
the
conventional
English
squire
;
and
,
after
she
left
the
vicarage
with
her
son
,
she
and
her
husband
's
uncle
met
no
more
.
But
when
he
died
it
was
found
that
the
old
man
's
sense
of
kinship
,
acting
blindly
and
irrationally
,
but
with
a
slow
inevitableness
and
certainty
,
had
stirred
in
him
at
the
last
in
behalf
of
his
great-nephew
.
He
left
him
a
money
legacy
,
the
interest
of
which
was
to
be
administered
by
his
mother
till
his
majority
,
and
in
a
letter
addressed
to
his
heir
he
directed
that
,
should
the
boy
on
attaining
manhood
show
any
disposition
to
enter
the
Church
,
all
possible
steps
were
to
be
taken
to
endow
him
with
the
family
living
of
Murewell
,
which
had
been
his
father
's
,
and
which
at
the
time
of
the
old
Baronet
's
death
was
occupied
by
another
connection
of
the
family
,
already
well
stricken
in
years
.
Mowbray
Elsmere
had
been
hardly
on
speaking
terms
with
his
cousin
Edward
,
and
was
neither
amiable
nor
generous
,
but
his
father
knew
that
the
tenacious
Elsmere
instinct
was
to
be
depended
on
for
the
fulfilment
of
his
wishes
.
And
so
it
proved
.
No
sooner
was
his
father
dead
than
Sir
Mowbray
curtly
communicated
his
instructions
to
Mrs.
Elsmere
,
then
living
at
the
town
of
Harden
for
the
sake
of
the
great
public
school
recently
transported
there
.
She
was
to
inform
him
,
when
the
right
moment
arrived
,
if
it
was
the
boy
's
wish
to
enter
the
Church
,
and
meanwhile
he
referred
her
to
his
lawyers
for
particulars
of
such
immediate
benefits
as
were
secured
to
her
under
the
late
Baronet
's
will
.
At
the
moment
when
Sir
Mowbray
's
letter
reached
her
,
Mrs.
Elsmere
was
playing
a
leading
part
in
the
small
society
to
which
circumstances
had
consigned
her
.
She
was
the
personal
friend
of
half
the
masters
and
their
wives
,
and
of
at
least
a
quarter
of
the
school
,
while
in
the
little
town
which
stretched
up
the
hill
covered
by
the
new
school
buildings
,
she
was
the
helper
,
gossip
,
and
confidante
of
half
the
parish
.
Her
vast
hats
,
strange
in
fashion
and
inordinate
in
brim
,
her
shawls
of
many
colours
,
hitched
now
to
this
side
now
to
that
,
her
swaying
gait
and
looped-up
skirts
,
her
spectacles
,
and
the
dangling
parcels
in
which
her
soul
delighted
,
were
the
outward
signs
of
a
per
sonality
familiar
to
all
.
For
under
those
checked
shawls
which
few
women
passed
without
an
inward
marvel
,
there
beat
one
of
the
warmest
hearts
that
ever
animated
mortal
clay
,
and
the
prematurely
wrinkled
face
,
with
its
small
quick
eyes
and
shrewd
indulgent
mouth
,
bespoke
a
nature
as
responsive
as
it
was
vigorous
.
Their
owner
was
constantly
in
the
public
eye
.
Her
house
,
during
the
hours
at
any
rate
in
which
her
boy
was
at
school
,
was
little
else
than
a
halting-place
between
two
journeys
.
Visits
to
the
poor
,
long
watches
by
the
sick
;
committees
,
in
which
her
racy
breadth
of
character
gave
her
always
an
important
place
;
discussions
with
the
vicar
,
arguments
with
the
curates
,
a
chat
with
this
person
and
a
walk
with
that
—
these
were
the
incidents
and
occupations
which
filled
her
day
.
Life
was
delightful
to
her
;
action
,
energy
,
influence
,
were
delightful
to
her
;
she
could
only
breathe
freely
in
the
very
thick
of
the
stirring
,
many-coloured
tumult
of
existence
.
Whether
it
was
a
pauper
in
the
workhouse
,
or
boys
from
the
school
,
or
a
girl
caught
in
the
tangle
of
a
love-affair
,
it
was
all
the
same
to
Mrs.
Elsmere
.
Everything
moved
her
,
everything
appealed
to
her
.
Her
life
was
a
perpetual
giving
forth
,
and
such
was
the
inherent
nobility
and
soundness
of
the
nature
,
that
in
spite
of
her
curious
Irish
fondness
for
the
vehement
romantic
sides
of
experience
,
she
did
little
harm
,
and
much
good
.
Her
tongue
might
be
over-ready
and
her
championships
indiscreet
,
but
her
hands
were
helpful
,
and
her
heart
was
true
.
There
was
something
contagious
in
her
enjoyment
of
life
,
and
with
all
her
strong
religious
faith
,
the
thought
of
death
,
of
any
final
pause
and
silence
in
the
whirr
of
the
great
social
machine
,
was
to
her
a
thought
of
greater
chill
and
horror
than
to
many
a
less
brave
and
spiritual
soul
.
Till
her
boy
was
twelve
years
old
,
however
,
she
had
lived
for
him
first
and
foremost
.
She
had
taught
him
,
played
with
him
,
learnt
with
him
,
communicating
to
him
through
all
his
lessons
her
own
fire
and
eagerness
to
a
degree
which
every
now
and
then
taxed
the
physical
powers
of
the
child
.
Whenever
the
signs
of
strain
appeared
,
however
,
the
mother
would
be
overtaken
by
a
fit
of
repentant
watchfulness
,
and
for
days
together
Robert
would
find
her
the
most
fascinating
playmate
,
story-teller
,
and
romp
,
and
forget
all
his
precocious
interest
in
history
or
vulgar
fractions
.
In
after
years
when
Robert
looked
back
upon
his
childhood
,
he
was
often
reminded
of
the
stories
of
Goethe
's
bringing-up
.
He
could
recall
exactly
the
same
scenes
as
Goethe
describes
,
—
mother
and
child
sitting
together
in
the
gloaming
,
the
mother
's
dark
eyes
dancing
with
fun
or
kindling
with
dramatic
fire
,
as
she
carried
an
imaginary
hero
or
heroine
through
a
series
of
the
raciest
adventures
;
the
child
all
eagerness
and
sympathy
,
now
clapping
his
little
hands
at
the
fall
of
the
giant
,
or
the
defeat
of
the
sorcerer
,
and
now
arguing
and
suggesting
in
ways
which
gave
perpetually
fresh
stimulus
to
the
mother
's
inventiveness
.
He
could
see
her
dressing
up
with
him
on
wet
days
,
reciting
King
Henry
to
his
Prince
Hal
,
or
Prospero
to
his
Ariel
,
or
simply
giving
free
vent
to
her
own
exuberant
Irish
fun
till
both
he
and
she
would
sink
exhausted
into
each
other
's
arms
,
and
end
the
evening
with
a
long
croon
,
sitting
curled
up
together
in
a
big
armchair
in
front
of
the
fire
.
He
could
see
himself
as
a
child
of
many
crazes
,
eager
for
poetry
one
week
,
for
natural
history
the
next
,
now
spending
all
his
spare
time
in
strumming
,
now
in
drawing
,
and
now
forgetting
everything
but
the
delights
of
tree-climbing
and
bird-nesting
.
And
through
it
all
he
had
the
quick
memory
of
his
mother
's
companionship
,
he
could
recall
her
rueful
looks
whenever
the
eager
inaccurate
ways
,
in
which
he
reflected
certain
ineradicable
tendencies
of
her
own
,
had
lost
him
a
school
advantage
;
he
could
remember
her
exhortations
,
with
the
dash
in
them
of
humorous
self-reproach
which
made
them
so
stirring
to
the
child
's
affection
;
and
he
could
realise
their
old
far-off
life
at
Murewell
,
the
joys
and
the
worries
of
it
,
and
see
her
now
gossiping
with
the
village
folk
,
now
wearing
herself
impetuously
to
death
in
their
service
,
and
now
roaming
with
him
over
the
Surrey
heaths
in
search
of
all
the
dirty
delectable
things
in
which
a
boy-naturalist
delights
.
And
through
it
all
he
was
conscious
of
the
same
vivid
energetic
creature
,
disposing
with
some
difficulty
and
fracas
of
its
own
excess
of
nervous
life
.
To
return
,
however
,
to
this
same
critical
moment
of
Sir
Mowbray
's
offer
.
Robert
at
the
time
was
a
boy
of
sixteen
,
doing
very
well
at
school
,
a
favourite
both
with
boys
and
masters
.
But
as
to
whether
his
development
would
lead
him
in
the
direction
of
taking
orders
,
his
mother
had
not
the
slightest
idea
.
She
was
not
herself
very
much
tempted
by
the
prospect
.
There
were
recollections
connected
with
Murewell
,
and
with
the
long
death
in
life
which
her
husband
had
passed
through
there
,
which
were
deeply
painful
to
her
;
and
,
moreover
,
her
sympathy
with
the
clergy
as
a
class
was
by
no
means
strong
.
Her
experience
had
not
been
large
,
but
the
feeling
based
on
it
promised
to
have
all
the
tenacity
of
a
favourite
prejudice
.
Fortune
had
handed
over
the
parish
of
Harden
to
a
ritualist
vicar
.
Mrs.
Elsmere
's
inherited
Evangelicalism
—
she
came
from
an
Ulster
county
—
rebelled
against
his
doctrine
,
but
the
man
himself
was
too
lovable
to
be
disliked
.
Mrs.
Elsmere
knew
a
hero
when
she
saw
him
.
And
in
his
own
narrow
way
,
the
small-headed
emaciated
vicar
was
a
hero
,
and
he
and
Mrs.
Elsmere
had
soon
tasted
each
other
's
quality
,
and
formed
a
curious
alliance
,
founded
on
true
similarity
in
difference
.
But
the
criticism
thus
warded
off
the
vicar
expended
itself
with
all
the
more
force
on
his
subordinates
.
The
Harden
curates
were
the
chief
crook
in
Mrs.
Elsmere
's
otherwise
tolerable
lot
.
Her
parish
activities
brought
her
across
them
perpetually
,
and
she
could
not
away
with
them
.
Their
cassocks
,
their
pretensions
,
their
stupidities
,
roused
the
Irish-
woman
's
sense
of
humour
at
every
turn
.
The
individuals
came
and
went
,
but
the
type
it
seemed
to
her
was
always
the
same
;
and
she
made
their
peculiarities
the
basis
of
a
pessimist
theory
as
to
the
future
of
the
English
Church
,
which
was
a
source
of
constant
amusement
to
the
very
broad-minded
young
men
who
filled
up
the
school
staff
.
She
,
so
ready
in
general
to
see
all
the
world
's
good
points
,
was
almost
blind
when
it
was
a
curate
's
virtues
which
were
in
question
.
So
that
,
in
spite
of
all
her
persistent
church-going
,
and
her
love
of
church
performances
as
an
essential
part
of
the
busy
human
spectacle
,
Mrs.
Elsmere
had
no
yearning
for
a
clerical
son
.
The
little
accidents
of
a
personal
experience
had
led
to
wide
generalisations
,
as
is
the
way
with
us
mortals
,
and
the
position
of
the
young
parson
in
these
days
of
increased
parsonic
pretensions
was
,
to
Mrs.
Elsmere
,
a
position
in
which
there
was
an
inherent
risk
of
absurdity
.
She
wished
her
son
to
impose
upon
her
when
it
came
to
his
taking
any
serious
step
in
life
.
She
asked
for
nothing
better
,
indeed
,
than
to
be
able
,
when
the
time
came
,
to
bow
the
motherly
knee
to
him
in
homage
,
and
she
felt
a
little
dread
lest
,
in
her
flat
moments
,
a
clerical
son
might
sometimes
rouse
in
her
that
sharp
sense
of
the
ludicrous
which
is
the
enemy
of
all
happy
illusions
.
Still
,
of
course
,
the
Elsmere
proposal
was
one
to
be
seriously
considered
in
its
due
time
and
place
.
Mrs.
Elsmere
only
reflected
that
it
would
certainly
be
better
to
say
nothing
of
it
to
Robert
until
he
should
be
at
college
.
His
impressionable
temperament
,
and
the
power
he
had
occasionally
shown
of
absorbing
himself
in
a
subject
till
it
produced
in
him
a
fit
of
intense
continuous
brooding
,
unfavourable
to
health
and
nervous
energy
,
all
warned
her
not
to
supply
him
,
at
a
period
of
rapid
mental
and
bodily
growth
,
with
any
fresh
stimulus
to
the
sense
of
responsibility
.
As
a
boy
,
he
had
always
shown
himself
religiously
susceptible
to
a
certain
extent
,
and
his
mother
's
religious
likes
and
dislikes
had
invariably
found
in
him
a
blind
and
chivalrous
support
.
He
was
content
to
be
with
her
,
to
worship
with
her
,
and
to
feel
that
no
reluctance
or
resistance
divided
his
heart
from
hers
.
But
there
had
been
nothing
specially
noteworthy
or
precocious
about
his
religious
development
,
and
at
sixteen
or
seventeen
,
in
spite
of
his
affectionate
compliance
,
and
his
natural
reverence
for
all
persons
and
beliefs
in
authority
,
his
mother
was
perfectly
aware
that
many
other
things
in
his
life
were
more
real
to
him
than
religion
.
And
on
this
point
,
at
any
rate
,
she
was
certainly
not
the
person
to
force
him
.
He
was
such
a
schoolboy
as
a
discerning
master
delights
in
—
keen
about
everything
,
bright
,
docile
,
popular
,
excellent
at
games
.
He
was
in
the
sixth
,
moreover
,
as
soon
as
his
age
allowed
:
that
is
to
say
,
as
soon
as
he
was
sixteen
;
and
his
pride
in
everything
connected
with
the
great
body
in
which
he
had
already
a
marked
and
important
place
was
unbounded
.
Very
early
in
his
school
career
the
literary
instincts
,
which
had
always
been
present
in
him
,
and
which
his
mother
had
largely
helped
to
develop
by
her
own
restless
imaginative
ways
of
approaching
life
and
the
world
,
made
themselves
felt
with
considerable
force
.
Some
time
before
his
cousin
's
letter
arrived
,
he
had
been
taken
with
a
craze
for
English
poetry
,
and
,
but
for
the
corrective
influence
of
a
favourite
tutor
would
probably
have
thrown
himself
into
it
with
the
same
exclusive
passion
as
he
had
shown
for
subject
after
subject
in
his
eager
ebullient
childhood
.
His
mother
found
him
at
thirteen
inditing
a
letter
on
the
subject
of
The
Faerie
Queene
to
a
school-friend
,
in
which
,
with
a
sincerity
which
made
her
forgive
the
pomposity
,
he
remarked
—
'
I
can
truly
say
with
Pope
,
that
this
great
work
has
afforded
me
extraordinary
pleasure
.
'
And
about
the
same
time
,
a
master
who
was
much
interested
in
the
boy
's
prospects
of
getting
the
school
prize
for
Latin
verse
,
a
subject
for
which
he
had
always
shown
a
special
aptitude
,
asked
him
anxiously
,
after
an
Easter
holiday
,
what
he
had
been
reading
;
the
boy
ran
his
hands
through
his
hair
,
and
still
keeping
his
finger
between
the
leaves
,
shut
a
book
before
him
from
which
he
had
been
learning
by
heart
,
and
which
was
,
alas
!
neither
Ovid
nor
Virgil
.
'
I
have
just
finished
Belial
!
'
he
said
,
with
a
sigh
of
satisfaction
,
'
and
am
beginning
Beelzebub
.
'
A
craze
of
this
kind
was
naturally
followed
by
a
feverish
period
of
juvenile
authorship
,
when
the
house
was
littered
over
with
stanzas
from
the
opening
canto
of
a
great
poem
on
Columbus
,
or
with
moral
essays
in
the
manner
of
Pope
,
castigating
the
vices
of
the
time
with
an
energy
which
sorely
tried
the
gravity
of
the
mother
whenever
she
was
called
upon
,
as
she
invariably
was
,
to
play
audience
to
the
young
poet
.
At
the
same
time
the
classics
absorbed
in
reality
their
full
share
of
this
fast
developing
power
.
Virgil
and
Æschylus
appealed
to
the
same
fibres
,
the
same
susceptibilities
,
as
Milton
and
Shakspeare
,
and
the
boy
's
quick
imaginative
sense
appropriated
Greek
and
Latin
life
with
the
same
ease
which
it
showed
in
possessing
itself
of
that
bygone
English
life
whence
sprung
the
Canterbury
Tales
,
or
As
You
Like
It
.
So
that
his
tutor
,
who
was
much
attached
to
him
,
and
who
made
it
one
of
his
main
objects
in
life
to
keep
the
boy
's
aspiring
nose
to
the
grindstone
of
grammatical
minutiæ
,
began
about
the
time
of
Sir
Mowbray
's
letter
to
prophesy
very
smooth
things
indeed
to
his
mother
as
to
his
future
success
at
college
,
the
possibility
of
his
getting
the
famous
St.
Anselm
's
scholarship
,
and
so
on
.
Evidently
such
a
youth
was
not
likely
to
depend
for
the
attainment
of
a
foothold
in
life
on
a
piece
of
family
privilege
.
The
world
was
all
before
him
where
to
choose
,
Mrs.
Elsmere
thought
proudly
to
herself
,
as
her
mother
's
fancy
wandered
rashly
through
the
coming
years
.
And
for
many
reasons
she
secretly
allowed
herself
to
hope
that
he
would
find
for
himself
some
other
post
of
ministry
in
a
very
various
world
than
the
vicarage
of
Murewell
.
So
she
wrote
a
civil
letter
of
acknowledgment
to
Sir
Mowbray
,
informing
him
that
the
intentions
of
his
great-uncle
should
be
communicated
to
the
boy
when
he
should
be
of
fit
age
to
consider
them
,
and
that
meanwhile
she
was
obliged
to
him
for
pointing
out
the
procedure
by
which
she
might
lay
hands
on
the
legacy
bequeathed
to
her
in
trust
for
her
son
,
the
income
of
which
would
now
be
doubly
welcome
in
view
of
his
college
expenses
.
There
the
matter
rested
,
and
Mrs.
Elsmere
,
during
the
two
years
which
followed
,
thought
little
more
about
it
.
She
became
more
and
more
absorbed
in
her
boy
's
immediate
prospects
,
in
the
care
of
his
health
,
which
was
uneven
and
tried
somewhat
by
the
strain
of
preparation
for
an
attempt
on
the
St.
Anselm
's
scholarship
,
and
in
the
demands
which
his
ardent
nature
,
oppressed
with
the
weight
of
its
own
aspirations
,
was
constantly
making
upon
her
support
and
sympathy
.
At
last
the
moment
so
long
expected
arrived
.
Mrs.
Elsmere
and
her
son
left
Harden
amid
a
chorus
of
good
wishes
,
and
settled
themselves
early
in
November
in
Oxford
lodgings
.
Robert
was
to
have
a
few
days
'
complete
holiday
before
the
examination
,
and
he
and
his
mother
spent
it
in
exploring
the
beautiful
old
town
,
now
shrouded
in
the
'
pensive
glooms
'
of
still
,
gray
autumn
weather
.
There
was
no
sun
to
light
up
the
misty
reaches
of
the
river
;
the
trees
in
the
Broad
Walk
were
almost
bare
;
the
Virginian
creeper
no
longer
shone
in
patches
of
delicate
crimson
on
the
college
walls
;
the
gardens
were
damp
and
forsaken
.
But
to
Mrs.
Elsmere
and
Robert
the
place
needed
neither
sun
nor
summer
'
for
beauty
's
heightening
.
'
On
both
of
them
it
laid
its
old
irresistible
spell
;
the
sentiment
haunting
its
quadrangles
,
its
libraries
,
and
its
dim
melodious
chapels
,
stole
into
the
lad
's
heart
and
alternately
soothed
and
stimulated
that
keen
individual
consciousness
which
naturally
accompanies
the
first
entrance
into
manhood
.
Here
,
on
this
soil
,
steeped
in
memories
,
his
problems
,
his
struggles
were
to
be
fought
out
in
their
turn
.
'
Take
up
thy
manhood
,
'
said
the
inward
voice
,
'
and
show
what
is
in
thee
.
The
hour
and
the
opportunity
have
come
!
'
And
to
this
thrill
of
vague
expectation
,
this
young
sense
of
an
expanding
world
,
something
of
pathos
and
of
sacredness
was
added
by
the
dumb
influences
of
the
old
streets
and
weather-beaten
stones
.
How
tenacious
they
were
of
the
past
!
The
dreaming
city
seemed
to
be
still
brooding
in
the
autumn
calm
over
the
long
succession
of
her
sons
.
The
continuity
,
the
complexity
of
human
experience
;
the
unremitting
effort
of
the
race
;
the
stream
of
purpose
running
through
it
all
;
these
were
the
kind
of
thoughts
which
,
in
more
or
less
inchoate
and
fragmentary
shape
,
pervaded
the
boy
's
sensitive
mind
as
he
rambled
with
his
mother
from
college
to
college
.
Mrs.
Elsmere
,
too
,
was
fascinated
by
Oxford
.
But
for
all
her
eager
interest
,
the
historic
beauty
of
the
place
aroused
in
her
an
under-mood
of
melancholy
,
just
as
it
did
in
Robert
.
Both
had
the
impressionable
Celtic
temperament
,
and
both
felt
that
a
critical
moment
was
upon
them
,
and
that
the
Oxford
air
was
charged
with
fate
for
each
of
them
.
For
the
first
time
in
their
lives
they
were
to
be
parted
.
The
mother
's
long
guardianship
was
coming
to
an
end
.
Had
she
loved
him
enough
?
Had
she
so
far
fulfilled
the
trust
her
dead
husband
had
imposed
upon
her
?
Would
her
boy
love
her
in
the
new
life
as
he
had
loved
her
in
the
old
?
And
could
her
poor
craving
heart
bear
to
see
him
absorbed
by
fresh
interests
and
passions
,
in
which
her
share
could
be
only
,
at
the
best
,
secondary
and
indirect
?
One
day
—
it
was
on
the
afternoon
preceding
the
examination
—
she
gave
hurried
,
half-laughing
utterance
to
some
of
these
misgivings
of
hers
.
They
were
walking
down
the
Lime-walk
of
Trinity
Gardens
;
beneath
their
feet
a
yellow
fresh-strewn
carpet
of
leaves
,
brown
interlacing
branches
overhead
,
and
a
red
misty
sun
shining
through
the
trunks
.
Robert
understood
his
mother
perfectly
,
and
the
way
she
had
of
hiding
a
storm
of
feeling
under
these
tremulous
comedy
airs
.
So
that
,
instead
of
laughing
too
,
he
took
her
hand
and
,
there
being
no
spectators
anywhere
to
be
seen
in
the
damp
November
garden
,
he
raised
it
to
his
lips
with
a
few
broken
words
of
affection
and
gratitude
which
very
nearly
overcame
the
self-command
of
both
of
them
.
She
dashed
wildly
into
another
subject
,
and
then
suddenly
it
occurred
to
her
impulsive
mind
that
the
moment
had
come
to
make
him
acquainted
with
those
dying
intentions
of
his
great-uncle
which
we
have
already
described
.
The
diversion
was
a
welcome
one
,
and
the
duty
seemed
clear
.
So
,
accordingly
,
she
made
him
give
her
all
his
attention
while
she
told
him
the
story
and
the
terms
of
Sir
Mowbray
's
letter
,
forcing
herself
the
while
to
keep
her
own
opinions
and
predilections
as
much
as
possible
out
of
sight
.
Robert
listened
with
interest
and
astonishment
,
the
sense
of
a
new-found
manhood
waxing
once
more
strong
within
him
,
as
his
mind
admitted
the
strange
picture
of
himself
occupying
the
place
which
had
been
his
father
's
;
master
of
the
house
and
the
parish
he
had
wandered
over
with
childish
steps
,
clinging
to
the
finger
or
the
coat
of
the
tall
stooping
figure
which
occupied
the
dim
background
of
his
recollections
.
'
Poor
mother
,
'
he
said
thoughtfully
,
when
she
paused
,
'
it
would
be
hard
upon
you
to
go
back
to
Murewell
!
'
'
Oh
,
you
must
n't
think
of
me
when
the
time
comes
,
'
said
Mrs.
Elsmere
,
sighing
.
'
I
shall
be
a
tiresome
old
woman
,
and
you
will
be
a
young
man
wanting
a
wife
.
There
,
put
it
out
of
your
head
,
Robert
.
I
thought
I
had
better
tell
you
,
for
,
after
all
,
the
fact
may
concern
your
Oxford
life
.
But
you
've
got
a
long
time
yet
before
you
need
begin
to
worry
about
it
.
'
The
boy
drew
himself
up
to
his
full
height
,
and
tossed
his
tumbling
reddish
hair
back
from
his
eyes
.
He
was
nearly
six
feet
already
,
with
a
long
thin
body
and
head
,
which
amply
justified
his
school
nickname
of
'
the
darning-needle
.
'
'
Do
n't
you
trouble
either
,
mother
,
'
he
said
,
with
a
tone
of
decision
:
'
I
do
n't
feel
as
if
I
should
ever
take
orders
.
'
Mrs.
Elsmere
was
old
enough
to
know
what
importance
to
attach
to
the
trenchancy
of
eighteen
,
but
still
the
words
were
pleasant
to
her
.
The
next
day
Robert
went
up
for
examination
,
and
after
three
days
of
hard
work
,
and
phases
of
alternate
hope
and
depression
,
in
which
mother
and
son
excited
one
another
to
no
useful
purpose
,
there
came
the
anxious
crowding
round
the
college
gate
in
the
November
twilight
,
and
the
sudden
flight
of
dispersing
messengers
bearing
the
news
over
Oxford
.
The
scholarship
had
been
won
by
a
precocious
Etonian
with
an
extraordinary
talent
for
'
stems
,
'
and
all
that
appertained
thereto
.
But
the
exhibition
fell
to
Robert
,
and
mother
and
son
were
well
content
.
The
boy
was
eager
to
come
into
residence
at
once
,
though
he
would
matriculate
too
late
to
keep
the
term
.
The
college
authorities
were
willing
,
and
on
the
Saturday
following
the
announcement
of
his
success
he
was
matriculated
,
saw
the
Provost
,
and
was
informed
that
rooms
would
be
found
for
him
without
delay
.
His
mother
and
he
gaily
climbed
innumerable
stairs
to
inspect
the
garrets
of
which
he
was
soon
to
take
proud
possession
,
sallying
forth
from
them
only
to
enjoy
an
agitated
delightful
afternoon
among
the
shops
.
Expenditure
,
always
charming
,
becomes
under
these
circumstances
a
sacred
and
pontifical
act
.
Never
had
Mrs.
Elsmere
bought
a
teapot
for
herself
with
half
the
fervour
which
she
now
threw
into
the
purchase
of
Robert
's
;
and
the
young
man
,
accustomed
to
a
rather
bare
home
,
and
an
Irish
lack
of
the
little
elegancies
of
life
,
was
overwhelmed
when
his
mother
actually
dragged
him
into
a
printseller
's
,
and
added
an
engraving
or
two
to
the
enticing
miscellaneous
mass
of
which
he
was
already
master
.
They
only
just
left
themselves
time
to
rush
back
to
their
lodgings
and
dress
for
the
solemn
function
of
a
dinner
with
the
Provost
.
The
dinner
,
however
,
was
a
great
success
.
The
short
,
shy
manner
of
their
white-haired
host
thawed
under
the
influence
of
Mrs.
Elsmere
's
racy
,
unaffected
ways
,
and
it
was
not
long
before
everybody
in
the
room
had
more
or
less
made
friends
with
her
,
and
forgiven
her
her
marvellous
drab
poplin
,
adorned
with
fresh
pink
ruchings
for
the
occasion
.
As
for
the
Provost
,
Mrs.
Elsmere
had
been
told
that
he
was
a
person
of
whom
she
must
inevitably
stand
in
awe
.
But
all
her
life
long
she
had
been
like
the
youth
in
the
fairy
tale
who
desired
to
learn
how
to
shiver
and
could
not
attain
unto
it
.
Fate
had
denied
her
the
capacity
of
standing
in
awe
of
anybody
,
and
she
rushed
at
her
host
as
a
new
type
,
delighting
in
the
thrill
which
she
felt
creeping
over
her
when
she
found
herself
on
the
arm
of
one
who
had
been
the
rallying-point
of
a
hundred
struggles
,
and
a
centre
of
influence
over
thousands
of
English
lives
.
And
then
followed
the
proud
moment
when
Robert
,
in
his
exhibitioner
's
gown
,
took
her
to
service
in
the
chapel
on
Sunday
.
The
scores
of
young
faces
,
the
full
unison
of
the
hymns
,
and
finally
the
Provost
's
sermon
,
with
its
strange
brusqueries
and
simplicities
of
manner
and
phrase
—
simplicities
so
suggestive
,
so
full
of
a
rich
and
yet
disciplined
experience
,
that
they
haunted
her
mind
for
weeks
afterwards
—
completed
the
general
impression
made
upon
her
by
the
Oxford
life
.
She
came
out
,
tremulous
and
shaken
,
leaning
on
her
son
's
arm
.
She
,
too
,
like
the
generations
before
her
,
had
launched
her
venture
into
the
deep
.
Her
boy
was
putting
out
from
her
into
the
ocean
;
henceforth
she
could
but
watch
him
from
the
shore
.
Brought
into
contact
with
this
imposing
University
organisation
,
with
all
its
suggestions
of
virile
energies
and
functions
,
the
mother
suddenly
felt
herself
insignificant
and
forsaken
.
He
had
been
her
all
,
her
own
,
and
now
on
this
training-ground
of
English
youth
,
it
seemed
to
her
that
the
great
human
society
had
claimed
him
from
her
.
CHAPTER
V
In
his
Oxford
life
Robert
surrendered
himself
to
the
best
and
most
stimulating
influences
of
the
place
,
just
as
he
had
done
at
school
.
He
was
a
youth
of
many
friends
,
by
virtue
of
a
natural
gift
of
sympathy
,
which
was
no
doubt
often
abused
,
and
by
no
means
invariably
profitable
to
its
owner
,
but
wherein
,
at
any
rate
,
his
power
over
his
fellows
,
like
the
power
of
half
the
potent
men
in
the
world
's
history
,
always
lay
rooted
.
He
had
his
mother
's
delight
in
living
.
He
loved
the
cricket-field
,
he
loved
the
river
;
his
athletic
instincts
and
his
athletic
friends
were
always
fighting
in
him
with
his
literary
instincts
and
the
friends
who
appealed
primarily
to
the
intellectual
and
moral
side
of
him
.
He
made
many
mistakes
alike
in
friends
and
in
pursuits
;
in
the
freshness
of
a
young
and
roving
curiosity
he
had
great
difficulty
in
submitting
himself
to
the
intellectual
routine
of
the
University
,
a
difficulty
which
ultimately
cost
him
much
;
but
at
the
bottom
of
the
lad
,
all
the
time
,
there
was
a
strength
of
will
,
a
force
and
even
tyranny
of
conscience
,
which
kept
his
charm
and
pliancy
from
degenerating
into
weakness
,
and
made
it
not
only
delightful
,
but
profitable
to
love
him
.
He
knew
that
his
mother
was
bound
up
in
him
,
and
his
being
was
set
to
satisfy
,
so
far
as
he
could
,
all
her
honourable
ambitions
.
His
many
undergraduate
friends
,
strong
as
their
influence
must
have
been
in
the
aggregate
on
a
nature
so
receptive
,
hardly
concern
us
here
.
His
future
life
,
so
far
as
we
can
see
,
was
most
noticeably
affected
by
two
men
older
than
himself
,
and
belong
ing
to
the
dons
—
both
of
them
fellows
and
tutors
of
St.
Anselm
's
,
though
on
different
planes
of
age
.
The
first
one
,
Edward
Langham
,
was
Robert
's
tutor
,
and
about
seven
years
older
than
himself
.
He
was
a
man
about
whom
,
on
entering
the
college
,
Robert
heard
more
than
the
usual
crop
of
stories
.
The
healthy
young
English
barbarian
has
an
aversion
to
the
intrusion
of
more
manner
into
life
than
is
absolutely
necessary
.
Now
,
Langham
was
overburdened
with
manner
,
though
it
was
manner
of
the
deprecating
and
not
of
the
arrogant
order
.
Decisions
,
it
seemed
,
of
all
sorts
were
abominable
to
him
.
To
help
a
friend
he
had
once
consented
to
be
Pro-proctor
.
He
resigned
in
a
month
,
and
none
of
his
acquaintances
ever
afterwards
dared
to
allude
to
the
experience
.
If
you
could
have
got
at
his
inmost
mind
,
it
was
affirmed
,
the
persons
most
obnoxious
there
would
have
been
found
to
be
the
scout
,
who
intrusively
asked
him
every
morning
what
he
would
have
for
breakfast
,
and
the
college
cook
,
who
,
till
such
a
course
was
strictly
forbidden
him
,
mounted
to
his
room
at
half-past
nine
to
inquire
whether
he
would
'
dine
in
.
'
Being
a
scholar
of
considerable
eminence
,
it
pleased
him
to
assume
on
all
questions
an
exasperating
degree
of
ignorance
;
and
the
wags
of
the
college
averred
that
when
asked
if
it
rained
,
or
if
collections
took
place
on
such
and
such
a
day
,
it
was
pain
and
grief
to
him
to
have
to
affirm
positively
,
without
qualifications
,
that
so
it
was
.
Such
a
man
was
not
very
likely
,
one
would
have
thought
,
to
captivate
an
ardent
,
impulsive
boy
like
Elsmere
.
Edward
Langham
,
however
,
notwithstanding
undergraduate
tales
,
was
a
very
remarkable
person
.
In
the
first
place
,
he
was
possessed
of
exceptional
personal
beauty
.
His
colouring
was
vividly
black
and
white
,
closely
curling
jet-black
hair
,
and
fine
black
eyes
contrasting
with
a
pale
,
clear
complexion
and
even
,
white
teeth
.
So
far
he
had
the
characteristics
which
certain
Irishmen
share
with
most
Spaniards
.
But
the
Celtic
or
Iberian
brilliance
was
balanced
by
a
classical
delicacy
and
precision
of
feature
.
He
had
the
brow
,
the
nose
,
the
upper
lip
,
the
finely-moulded
chin
,
which
belong
to
the
more
severe
and
spiritual
Greek
type
.
Certainly
of
Greek
blitheness
and
directness
there
was
no
trace
.
The
eye
was
wavering
and
profoundly
melancholy
;
all
the
movements
of
the
tall
,
finely-built
frame
were
hesitating
and
doubtful
.
It
was
as
though
the
man
were
suffering
from
paralysis
of
some
moral
muscle
or
other
;
as
if
some
of
the
normal
springs
of
action
in
him
had
been
profoundly
and
permanently
weakened
.
He
had
a
curious
history
.
He
was
the
only
child
of
a
doctor
in
a
Lincolnshire
country
town
.
His
old
parents
had
brought
him
up
in
strict
provincial
ways
,
ignoring
the
boy
's
idiosyncrasies
as
much
as
possible
.
They
did
not
want
an
exceptional
and
abnormal
son
,
and
they
tried
to
put
down
his
dreamy
,
self-conscious
habits
by
forcing
him
into
the
common
,
middle-class
,
Evangelical
groove
.
As
soon
as
he
got
to
college
,
however
,
the
brooding
,
gifted
nature
had
a
moment
of
sudden
and
,
as
it
seemed
to
the
old
people
in
Gainsborough
,
most
reprehensible
expansion
.
Poems
were
sent
to
them
,
cut
out
of
one
or
the
other
of
the
leading
periodicals
,
with
their
son
's
initials
appended
,
and
articles
of
philosophical
art-criticism
,
published
while
the
boy
was
still
an
undergraduate
—
which
seemed
to
the
stern
father
everything
that
was
sophistical
and
subversive
.
For
they
treated
Christianity
itself
as
an
open
question
,
and
showed
especially
scant
respect
for
the
'
Protestantism
of
the
Protestant
religion
.
'
The
father
warned
him
grimly
that
he
was
not
going
to
spend
his
hard-earned
savings
on
the
support
of
a
free-thinking
scribbler
,
and
the
young
man
wrote
no
more
till
just
after
he
had
taken
a
double
first
in
Greats
.
Then
the
publication
of
an
article
in
one
of
the
leading
Reviews
on
'
The
Ideals
of
Modern
Culture
'
not
only
brought
him
a
furious
letter
from
home
stopping
all
supplies
,
but
also
lost
him
a
probable
fellowship
.
His
college
was
one
of
the
narrowest
and
most
backward
in
Oxford
,
and
it
was
made
perfectly
plain
to
him
before
the
fellowship
examination
that
he
would
not
be
elected
.
He
left
the
college
,
took
pupils
for
a
while
,
then
stood
for
a
vacant
fellowship
at
St.
Anselm
's
,
the
Liberal
headquarters
,
and
got
it
with
flying
colours
.
Thenceforward
one
would
have
thought
that
a
brilliant
and
favourable
mental
development
was
secured
to
him
.
Not
at
all
.
The
moment
of
his
quarrel
with
his
father
and
his
college
had
,
in
fact
,
represented
a
moment
of
energy
,
of
comparative
success
,
which
never
recurred
.
It
was
as
though
this
outburst
of
action
and
liberty
had
disappointed
him
,
as
if
some
deep-rooted
instinct
—
cold
,
critical
,
reflective
—
had
reasserted
itself
,
condemning
him
and
his
censors
equally
.
The
uselessness
of
utterance
,
the
futility
of
enthusiasm
,
the
inaccessibility
of
the
ideal
,
the
practical
absurdity
of
trying
to
realise
any
of
the
mind
's
inward
dreams
:
these
were
the
kind
of
considerations
which
descended
upon
him
,
slowly
and
fatally
,
crushing
down
the
newly
springing
growths
of
action
or
of
passion
.
It
was
as
though
life
had
demonstrated
to
him
the
essential
truth
of
a
childish
saying
of
his
own
which
had
startled
and
displeased
his
Calvinist
mother
years
before
.
'
Mother
,
'
the
delicate
,
large-eyed
child
had
said
to
her
one
day
in
a
fit
of
physical
weariness
,
'
how
is
it
I
dislike
the
things
I
dislike
so
much
more
than
I
like
the
things
I
like
?
'
So
he
wrote
no
more
,
he
quarrelled
no
more
,
he
meddled
with
the
great
passionate
things
of
life
and
expression
no
more
.
On
his
taking
up
residence
in
St.
Anselm
's
,
indeed
,
and
on
his
being
appointed
first
lecturer
and
then
tutor
,
he
had
a
momentary
pleasure
in
the
thought
of
teaching
.
His
mind
was
a
storehouse
of
thought
and
fact
,
and
to
the
man
brought
up
at
a
dull
provincial
day-school
and
never
allowed
to
associate
freely
with
his
kind
,
the
bright
lads
fresh
from
Eton
and
Harrow
about
him
were
singularly
attractive
.
But
a
few
terms
were
enough
to
scatter
this
illusion
too
.
He
could
not
be
simple
,
