p between him and
a young man named Ormonde, and at the latter's home he met Mr.
Newthorpe, who, from the first, regarded him with interest. A year
after Mrs. Newthorpe's death Egremont was invited to visit the house at
Ullswater; since then he had twice spent a week there. This personal
intercourse was slight to have resulted in so much intimacy, but he had
kept up a frequent correspondence with Mr. Newthorpe from various parts
of the world, and common friends aided the stability of the relation.

He was the only son of a man who had made a fortune by the manufacture
of oil-cloth. His father began life as a house-painter, then became an
oil merchant in a small way, and at length married a tradesman's
daughter, who brought him a moderate capital just when he needed it for
an enterprise promising greatly. In a short time he had established the
firm of Egremont & Pollard, with extensive works in Lambeth. His wife
died before him; his son received a liberal education, and in early
manhood found himself, as far as he knew, without a living relative,
but with ample means of independence. Young Walter Egremont retained an
interest in the business, but had no intention of devoting himself to a
commercial life. At the University he had made alliances with men of
standing, in the academical sense, and likewise with some whose place
in the world relieved them from the necessity of establishing a claim
to intellect. In this way society was opened to him, and his personal
qualities won for him a great measure of regard from those whom he most
desired to please.

Somebody had called him 'the Idealist,' and the name adhered to him. At
two-and-twenty he published a volume of poems, obviously derived from
study of Shelley, but marked with a certain freshness of impersonal
aspiration which was pleasant enough. They had the note of sincerity
rather than the true poetical promise. The book had no successor.
Having found this utterance for his fervour, Egremont began a series of
ramblings over sea, in search, he said, of himself. The object seemed
to evade him; he returned to England from time to time, always in
appearance more restless, but always overflowing with ideas, for which
he had the readiest store of enthusiastic words. He was able to talk of
himself without conveying the least impression of egotism to those who
were in sympathy with his intellectual point of view; he was accused of
conceit only by a few who were jealous of him