est he had into the market, and if so, that
interest might be bought by the person to whom it must be of more
value than to any other. He had said little about it even to his
son;--but he had hoped; and now had come this letter from Sir Thomas.
The reader knows the letter and the Squire's answer.

The Squire himself was a very handsome man, tall, broad-shouldered,
square-faced, with hair and whiskers almost snow-white already, but
which nevertheless gave to him but little sign of age. He was very
strong, and could sit in the saddle all day without fatigue. He was
given much to farming, and thoroughly understood the duties of a
country gentleman. He was hospitable, too; for, though money had been
saved, the Priory had ever been kept as one of the pleasantest houses
in the county. There had been no wife, no child but the one, and no
house in London. The stables, however, had been full of hunters: and
it was generally said that no men in Hampshire were better mounted
than Gregory the father and Ralph the son. Of the father we will
only further say that he was a generous, passionate, persistent,
vindictive, and unforgiving man, a bitter enemy and a staunch friend;
a thorough-going Tory, who, much as he loved England and Hampshire
and Newton Priory, feared that they were all going to the dogs
because of Mr. Disraeli and household suffrage; but who felt, in
spite of those fears, that to make his son master of Newton Priory
after him would be the greatest glory of his life. He had sworn to
the young mother on her death-bed that the boy should be to him
as though he had been born in wedlock. He had been as good as his
word;--and we may say that he was one who had at least that virtue,
that he was always as good as his word.

The son was very like the father in face and gait and bearing,--so
like that the parentage was marked to the glance of any observer. He
was tall, as was his father, and broad across the chest, and strong
and active, as his father had ever been. But his face was of a nobler
stamp, bearing a surer impress of intellect, and in that respect
telling certainly the truth. This Ralph Newton had been educated
abroad, his father, with a morbid feeling which he had since done
much to conquer, having feared to send him among other young men,
the sons of squires and noblemen, who would have known that their
comrade was debarred by the disgrace of his birth from inheriting
the property of his father. But it may be doub