did not for the moment suit him to dismiss the
man who had brought this upon him, that man's reign in any true sense
was over.

But afterwards the squire was still restless. What was astir in him was
not so much pity or remorse as certain instincts of race which still
survived under the strange superstructure of manners he had built upon
them. It may be the part of a gentleman and a scholar to let the agent
whom you have interposed between yourself and a boorish peasantry have a
free hand; but, after all, the estate is yours, and to expose the rector
of the parish to all sorts of avoidable risks in the pursuit of his
official duty by reason of the gratuitous filth of your property, is an
act of doubtful breeding. The squire in his most rough-and-tumble days
at Berlin had always felt himself the grandee as well as the student. He
abhorred sentimentalism, but neither did he choose to cut an unseemly
figure in his own eyes.

After a night; therefore, less tranquil or less meditative than usual,
he rose early and sallied forth at one of those unusual hours he
generally chose for walking. The thing must be put right somehow, and at
once, with as little waste of time and energy as possible, and Henslowe
had shown himself not to be trusted; so telling a servant to follow him,
the squire had made his way with difficulty to a place he had not seen
for years.

Then had followed the unexpected and unwelcome apparition of the rector.
The squire did not want to be impressed by the young man, did not want
to make friends with him. No doubt his devotion had served his own
purposes. Still Mr. Wendover was one of the subtlest living judges of
character when he pleased, and his enforced progress through these
hovels with Elsmere had not exactly softened him, but had filled him
with a curious contempt for his own hastiness of judgment.

'History would be inexplicable after all without the honest fanatic,' he
said to himself on the way home. 'I suppose I had forgotten it. There is
nothing like a dread of being bored for blunting your psychological
instinct.'

In the course of the day he sent off a letter to the rector intimating
in the very briefest, driest way that the cottages should be rebuilt on
a different site as soon as possible, and enclosing a liberal
contribution towards the expenses incurred in fighting the epidemic.
When the letter was gone he drew his books towards him with a sound
which was partly disgust, partly relief