text:  It was no fault of the parish that its young baronet had proved a spendthrift and alienated the inheritance of his fathers; and but that he had preserved the manor-house from desecration they would perhaps have ostracized him altogether as having lent his aid to disgrace their manor with so noble a structure as the porticoed facade of Lexley Park! Meanwhile the shrewd Jonas was fully aware of his unpopularity and its origin; and during a period of three years he allowed his ill-advised subjects to chew unmolested the cud of their discontent