was very
glorious. There was a spot in the river from whence a steep path led
down from the park to the water, and at this spot the deer would come
to drink. I know nothing more beautiful than this sight, when three
or four of them could be so seen from one of the wooden bridges
towards the hour of sunset in the autumn.

Sir Peregrine himself at this time was an old man, having passed his
seventieth year. He was a fine, handsome English gentleman with white
hair, keen gray eyes, a nose slightly aquiline, and lips now too
closely pressed together in consequence of the havoc which time had
made among his teeth. He was tall, but had lost something of his
height from stooping,--was slight in his form, but well made, and
vain of the smallness of his feet and the whiteness of his hands. He
was generous, quick tempered, and opinionated; generally very mild to
those who would agree with him and submit to him, but intolerant of
contradiction, and conceited as to his experience of the world and
the wisdom which he had thence derived. To those who were manifestly
his inferiors he was affable, to his recognised equals he was
courteous, to women he was almost always gentle;--but to men who
claimed an equality which he would not acknowledge, he could make
himself particularly disagreeable. In judging the position which a
man should hold in the world, Sir Peregrine was very resolute in
ignoring all claims made by wealth alone. Even property in land could
not in his eyes create a gentleman. A gentleman, according to his
ideas, should at any rate have great-grandfathers capable of being
traced in the world's history; and the greater the number of such,
and the more easily traceable they might be on the world's surface,
the more unquestionable would be the status of the claimant in
question. Such being the case, it may be imagined that Joseph Mason,
Esq., of Groby Park did not rank high in the estimation of Sir
Peregrine Orme.

I have said that Sir Peregrine was fond of his own opinion; but
nevertheless he was a man whom it was by no means difficult to lead.
In the first place he was singularly devoid of suspicion. The word of
a man or of a woman was to him always credible, until full proof had
come home to him that it was utterly unworthy of credit. After that
such a man or woman might as well spare all speech as regards the
hope of any effect on the mind of Sir Peregrine Orme. He did not
easily believe a fellow-creature to be a liar