Robert replied that Sir Mowbray Elsmere was his 'father's cousin,
and the patron of the living to which be had just been, appointed.
Mrs. Seaton then graciously informed him that long ago-'when I was
a girl in my native Hampshire'--her family and Sir Mowbray Elsmere
had been on intimate terms. Her father had been devoted to Sir
Mowbray. 'And I,' she added with an evident though lofty desire
to please, 'retain an inherited respect, sir, for your name.'

Robert bowed, but it was not clear from his look that the rector's
wife had made an impression. His general conception of his relative
and patron Sir Mowbray--who had been for many years the family black
sheep--was, indeed, so far removed from any notions of 'respect,'
that he had some difficulty in keeping his countenance under the
lady's look and pose. He would have been still more entertained
had he known the nature of the intimacy to which she referred.
Mrs. Seaton's father, in his capacity of solicitor in a small country
town, had acted as electioneering agent for Sir Mowbray (then plain
Mr.) Elsmere on two occasions--in 18__, when his client had been
triumphantly returned at a bye-election; and two years later, when
a repetition of the tactics, so successful in the previous contest,
led to a petition, and to the disappearance of the heir to the
Elsmere property from parliamentary life.

Of these matters, however, he was ignorant, and Mrs. Seaton did not
enlighten him. Drawing herself up a little, and proceeding in a
more neutral tone than before, she proceeded to put him through a
catechism on Oxford, alternately cross-examining him and expounding
to him her own views and her husband's on the functions of the
Universities. She and the Archdeacon conceived that the Oxford
authorities were mainly occupied in ruining the young men's health