THE IDEALIST When Egremont began his acquaintance with the Newthorpes he was an Oxford undergraduate.

A close friendship had sprung up between him and a young man named Ormonde, and at the latter's home he met Mr.
Newthorpe, who, from the first, regarded him with interest.

A year after Mrs.Newthorpe's death Egremont was invited to visit the house at Ullswater; since then he had twice spent a week there.

This personal intercourse was slight to have resulted in so much intimacy, but he had kept up a frequent correspondence with Mr.Newthorpe from various parts of the world, and common friends aided the stability of the relation.
He was the only son of a man who had made a fortune by the manufacture of oil-cloth.

His father began life as a house-painter, then became an oil merchant in a small way, and at length married a tradesman's daughter, who brought him a moderate capital just when he needed it for an enterprise promising greatly.