heir
arrival in the parish the splendid Jacobean Hall had been untenanted.
The Squire, who was abroad to With his sister at the time of their
coming, had sent a civil note to the new rector on his settlement in
the parish, naming some common Oxford acquaintances, and desiring him to
make what use of the famous Murewell Library he pleased. 'I hear of
you as a friend to letters,' he wrote; 'do my books a service by using
them.' The words were graceful enough. Robert had answered them warmly.
He had also availed himself largely of the permission they had conveyed.
We shall see presently that the Squire, though absent, had already made
a deep impression on the young man's imagination.

But unfortunately he came across the Squire in two capacities. Mr.
Wendover was not only the owner of Murewell, he was also the owner of
the whole land of the parish, where, however, by a curious accident of
inheritance, dating some generations back, and implying some very remote
connection between the Wendover and Elsmere families, he was not the
patron of the living. Now the more Elsmere studied him under this
aspect, the deeper became his dismay. The estate was entirely in the
hands of an agent who had managed it for some fifteen years, and of
whose character the Rector, before he had been two months in the parish,
had formed the very poorest opinion. Robert, entering upon his duties
with the Order of the modern reformer, armed not only with charity but
with science, found himself confronted by the opposition of a man
who combined the shrewdness of an attorney with the callousness of a
drunkard. It seemed incredible that a great landowner should commit his
interests and the interests of hundreds of human beings to the hands of
such a person.

By-and-by, however, as the Rector penetrated more deeply into the
situation, he found his indignation transferring itself more and more
from the man to the master. It became clear to him that in some respects
Henslowe suited the Squire admirably. It became also clear to him that
the Squire had taken pains for years to let it be known that he cared
not one rap for any human being on his estate in any other capacity than
as a rent-payer or wage-receiver. What! Live for thirty years in that
great house, and never care whether your tenants and laborers lived like
pigs or like men, whether the old people died of damp, or the children
of diphtheria, which you might have prevented! Robert's brow grew dark