ng it
hard; but substance could be sifted out of what Lord Erymanth said, for
he had real experience, and his own parish was in admirable order.

Where there was no power of expulsion, as he said, there would always
be some degraded beings whose sole amusement was intoxication; but good
dwelling-houses capable of being made cheerful, gardens, innocent
recreations, and instruction had, he could testify from experience, no
small effect in preventing such habits from being formed in the younger
population, backed, as he was sure (good old man) that he need not tell
his young friends, by an active and efficient clergyman, who would
place the motives for good conduct on the truest and highest footing,
without which all reformation would only be surface work. I was glad
Harold should hear this from the lips of a layman, but I am afraid he
shirked it as a bit of prosing, and went back to the cottages.

"They are in a shameful state," he said.

"They are to be improved," exclaimed Eustace, eagerly. "As I told
Bullock, I am quite determined that mine shall be a model parish. I am
ready to make any sacrifices to do my duty as a landlord, though
Bullock says that no outlay on cottages ever pays, and that the test of
their being habitable is their being let, and that the people are so
ungrateful that they do not deserve to have anything done for them."

"You are not led away by such selfish arguments?" said Lord Erymanth.

"No, assuredly not," said Eustace, decidedly; "though I do wish Harold
would not disagree so much with Bullock. He is a very civil man, and
much in earnest in promoting my interests."

"That's not all," put in Harold.

"And I can't bear Bullock," I said. "'Our interest' has been always
his cry, whenever the least thing has been proposed for the cottage
people; and I know how much worse he let things get than we ever
supposed."

On which Lord Erymanth spoke out his distinct advice to get rid of
Bullock, telling us how he had been a servant's orphan whom my father
had intended to apprentice, but, being placed with our old bailiff for
a time, had made himself necessary, and ingratiated himself with my
father so as to succeed to the situation; and it had been the universal
belief, ever since my mother's widowhood, that he had taken advantage
of her seclusion and want of knowledge of business to deal harshly by
the tenants, especially the poor, and to feather his own nest.

It was only what Harold had a