The Project Gutenberg EBook of Robert Elsmere, by Mrs. Humphry Ward

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Title: Robert Elsmere

Author: Mrs. Humphry Ward

Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8737]
Posting Date: August 9, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROBERT ELSMERE ***

Produced by Andrew Templeton

ROBERT ELSMERE

By Mrs. Humphrey Ward

Author of "Miss Bretherton"

BOSTON: DeWOLFE, FISKE & CO., 365 Washington Street

Dedicated to the memory
Of
MY TWO FRIENDS

SEPARATED, IN MY THOUGHT OF THEM, BY MUCH DIVERSITY OF
CIRCUMSTANCE AND OPINION; LINKED, IN MY FAITH ABOUT
THEM, TO EACH OTHER, AND TO ALL THE SNINING
ONES OF THE PAST, BY THE LOVE OF GOD
AND THE SERVICE OF MAN:

THOMAS HILL GREEN

(LAYE PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD)

Died March 26, 1882

AND

LAURA OCTAVIA MARY LYTTELTON

Died Easter Eve, 1886

[Transcriber's note: In one section, marked by **, two Greek letters,
delta and epsilon, are transcribed as de. The allusion is to a poem by
Browning--'A Grammarian's Funeral']

[Italics are indicated by underscores.]

BOOK I. WESTMORELAND.

CHAPTER I.

It was a brilliant afternoon toward the end of May. The spring had been
unusually cold and late, and it was evident from the general aspect of
the lonely Westmoreland valley of Long Whindale that warmth and sunshine
had only just penetrated to its bare, green recesses, where the few
scattered trees were fast rushing into their full summer dress, while at
their feet, and along the bank of the stream, the flowers of March and
April still lingered, as though they found it impossible to believe
that their rough brother, the east wind, had at last deserted them. The
narrow road, which was the only link between the farm-houses sheltered
by the crags at the head of the valley, and those far away regions of
town and civilization suggested by