Such a character as this had necessarily been slow in formation, and the opinions which had been modified by it and had reacted upon it, had been as unalterably as deliberately adopted.

But affairs had approached a crisis between king and parliament before one of his friends knew that there were in his mind any opinions upon them in process of formation--so reserved and monosyllabic had been his share in any conversation upon topics which had for a long time been growing every hour of more and more absorbing interest to all men either of consequence, intelligence, property, or adventure.

At last, however, it had become clear, to the great annoyance of not a few amongst his neighbours, that Heywood's leanings were to the parliament.

But he had never yet sought to influence his son in regard to the great questions at issue.
His house was one of those ancient dwellings which have grown under the hands to fit the wants of successive generations, and look as if they had never been other than old; two-storied at most, and many-gabled, with marvellous accretions and projections, the haunts of yet more wonderful shadows.

There, in a room he called his study, shabby and small, containing a library more notable for quality and selection than size, Richard the next morning sought and found him.
'Father!' he said, entering with some haste after the usual request for admission.
'I am here, my son,' answered Roger, without lifting his eyes from the small folio in which he was reading.
'I want to know, father, whether, when men differ, a man is bound to take a side.' 'Nay, Richard, but a man is bound NOT to take a side save upon reasons well considered and found good.' 'It may be, father, if you had seen fit to send me to Oxford, I should have been better able to judge now.' 'I had my reasons, son Richard.