attorney should be friendly with the new-comer at Hoppet Hall,
though there were very few points of personal sympathy between
them.

Reginald Morton was no sportsman, nor was he at all likely to
become a member of the Dillsborough Club. It was currently reported
of him in the town that he had never sat on a horse or fired off a
gun. As he had been brought up as a boy by the old squire this was
probably an exaggeration, but it is certain that at this period of
his life he had given up any aptitudes in that direction for which
his early training might have suited him. He had brought back with
him to Hoppet Hall many cases of books which the ignorance of
Dillsborough had magnified into an enormous library, and he was
certainly a sedentary, reading man. There was already a report in
the town that he was engaged in some stupendous literary work, and
the men and women generally looked upon him as a disagreeable
marvel of learning. Dillsborough of itself was not bookish, and
would have regarded any one known to have written an article in a
magazine almost as a phenomenon.

He seldom went to church, much to the sorrow of Mr. Surtees, who
ventured to call at the house and remonstrate with him. He never
called again. And though it was the habit of Mr. Surtees' life to
speak as little ill as possible of any one, he was not able to say
any good of Mr. Morton. Mr. Mainwaring, who would never have
troubled himself though his parishioner had not entered a place of
worship once in a twelvemonth, did say many severe things against
his former landlord. He hated people who were unsocial and averse
to dining out, and who departed from the ways of living common
among English country gentlemen. Mr. Mainwaring was, upon the