_testimony_. What is the nature and the value of testimony at
given times? In other words, did the man of the third century understand
or report, or interpret facts in the same way as the man of the
sixteenth or the nineteenth? And if not, what are the differences, and
what are the deductions to be made from them, if any?' He fixed his keen
look on Robert, who was now lounging against the books, as though his
harangue had taken it out of him a little.

'Ah, well,' said the Rector smiling, 'I am only just coming to that. As
I told you, I am only now beginning to dig for myself. Till now it has
all been work at second hand. I have been getting a general survey of
the ground as quickly as I could with the help of other men's labors.
Now I must go to work inch by inch, and find out what the ground is
made of. I won't forget your point. It is enormously important, I
grant--enormously,' he repeated reflectively.

'I should think it is' said Langham to himself as he rose; 'the whole of
orthodox Christianity is in it, for instance!'

There was not much more to be seen. A little wooden stair-case led from
the second library to the upper rooms, curious old rooms, which had been
annexed one by one as the Squire wanted them, and in which there was
nothing at all--neither chair, nor table, nor carpet--but books only.
All the doors leading from room to room had been taken off; the old
worm-eaten boards had been roughly stained; a few old French engravings
had been hung here and there where the encroaching books left an
opening; but otherwise all was bare. There was a curious charm in the
space and air of these empty rooms, with their latticed windows opening
on to the hill, and letting in day by day the summer sun-risings or the
winter dawns, which had shone upon them for more than three centuries.

'This is my last day of privilege,' said Robert. 'Everybody is shut out
when once he appears, from this wing, and this part of the grounds. This
was his father's room,' and the Rector led the way into the last of the
series; 'and through there,' pointing to a door on the right, 'lies the
way to his own sleeping-room, which is of course connected with the more
modern side of the house.'

'So this is where that old man ventured "what Cato did and Addison
approved," murmured Langham, standing in the middle of the room and
looking around him. This particular room was now used as a sort of
lumber place, a receptacle for the superfluous or