e best pony, and the best
house-dog. His parish was the most virtuous, his church the most
picturesque, his vicarage the prettiest, certainly, in the whole
shire,--perhaps, in the whole kingdom. Probably it was this philosophy
of optimism which contributed to lift him into the serene realm of
aesthetic joy.

He was not without his dislikes as well as likings. Though a liberal
Churchman towards Protestant dissenters, he cherished the _odium
theologicum_ for all that savoured of Popery. Perhaps there was another
cause for this besides the purely theological one. Early in life a young
sister of his had been, to use his phrase, "secretly entrapped" into
conversion to the Roman Catholic faith, and had since entered a convent.
His affections had been deeply wounded by this loss to the range of
them. Mr. Emlyn had also his little infirmities of self-esteem rather
than of vanity. Though he had seen very little of any world beyond that
of his parish, he piqued himself on his knowledge of human nature and of
practical affairs in general. Certainly no man had read more about them,
especially in the books of the ancient classics. Perhaps it was owing
to this that he so little understood Lily,--a character to which the
ancient classics afforded no counterpart nor clue; and perhaps it was
this also that made Lily think him "so terribly grown up." Thus, despite
his mild good-nature, she did not get on very well with him.

The society of this amiable scholar pleased Kenelm the more, because
the scholar evidently had not the remotest idea that Kenelm's sojourn at
Cromwell Lodge was influenced by the vicinity to Grasmere. Mr. Emlyn was
sure that he knew human nature, and practical affairs in general, too
well to suppose that the heir to a rich baronet could dream of taking
for wife a girl without fortune or rank, the orphan ward of a low-born
artist only just struggling into reputation; or, indeed, that a
Cambridge prizeman, who had evidently read much on grave and dry
subjects, and who had no less evidently seen a great deal of polished
society, could find any other attraction in a very imperfectly-educated
girl, who tamed butterflies and knew no more than they did of
fashionable life, than Mr. Emlyn himself felt in the presence of a
pretty wayward innocent child, the companion and friend of his Clemmy.

Mrs. Braefield was more discerning; but she had a good deal of tact, and
did not as yet scare Kenelm away from her house by letting