It is true he was a stranger in the country, of whom nobody knew anything--for there appeared to be some mystery about him; but as Dick cared little of either his place of birth or pedigree, it was sufficient for him to find that Hanlon was a very useful, not to say valuable young man, about his house, that he understood everything, and had an eye and hand equally quick and experienced.

The consequence was, that he soon became a favorite with the father, and a kind of _sine qua non_ with the son, into whose rustic gallantries he entered, with a spirit that satisfied the latter of his capacity to serve him in that respect as well as others.

Hanlon, in truth, was just the person for such a master, and for such an establishment as he kept.

Dick o' the Grange was not a man who, either by birth, education, or position in society, could entertain any pretensions to rank with the gentry of the surrounding country.

It is true he was a magistrate, but then he was a middleman, and as such found himself an interested agent in the operation of one of the worst and most cruel systems that ever cursed either the country or the people.
We of course mean that which suffered a third party to stand between the head landlord, and those who in general occupied the soil.