A Laodicean

terval on the walls before encountering Miss De Stancy, whom at last

to speak. 'I am sorry Miss Power has not returned,' she said, and accounted

the elder Mr. Somerset's works than a dim sense of his fame as a painter? But I was going to say that my father would much like to include you in his personal acquaintance, and wishes me to ask if you will give him the pleasure of lunching w

ends where he had only expected strangers; and prom

the turnpike-road. He would then be almost close to the house. The distance was about two miles and a half. But if he thought it too far for a walk, sh

, he thought. He was a walk

to tell Miss De Stancy that

ne again!' she exclaimed. 'John s

strument. So up they went together, and immediately on reaching it she applied her ear to the instrument, and b

aid, smiling. '"Paula to

very p

ut-you,' murmure

chitect blus

very nose, in language unintelligible to him. He conjectured whether it were inquiry, praise, or blame, with a sense that it might reasonabl

the castle he may wish to see. On my return I shall be glad to welcome him

d, as Miss De Stancy announced the w

way here-telling her that Mr. Somerset, son of the Academician, was making sket

res by my father tha

-at least, n

to receive him at two o'clock. Just about one he closed his sketch-book, and set out in the direction she had indicated. At the entrance to the wood a man was

he forest prefer walking to flying; and there being no wind, the hopping of the smallest songster over the dead leaves reached his ear from behind the undergrowth. The track had originally been a well-kept winding drive, but a deep carpet of moss and leaves overlaid it now, though the general outline s

tly dipped down towards the town of Markton, a place he had never yet seen. It appeared in the distance as a quiet little borough of a few thousand inhabitants; and, without the town boundary on the

surface in front, divided from the road by iron railings, the low line of shrubs immediately within them being coated with pallid dust from the highway. On the n

which pervaded it. He was shown in by a neat maidservant in black gown and white apron, a canary singing a welcome from a cage in the shadow

rden. The drawing-room furniture was comfortable, in the walnut-and-green-rep style of some years ago. Somerset had expected to find his friends living in an old house with remnants of their own antique furniture, and he hardly knew whether he ough

aistcoat-buttons, and the front corners of his coat-tails hanging lower than the hinderparts, so that th

before he became so well-known; and also because I learn that you were a friend of my poor nephew John Ravensbury.' He looked over his shoulder to see if his daughter were within hearing, and, with t

he cow had got out of the paddock into Miss Power's field, that the smith who had promised to come and look at the kitchen range had not arrived, that two wasps' nests had been discovered in the garden bank, and that Nick Jones's baby had fallen downstairs. Sir William had large cavernous arches to his eye-sockets, reminding the beholder of the vaults in the castle he once had owned. His han

architect's was at that time. Incurious unobservance is the true attitude of cordiality, and Somerset blamed himself for having fallen into

ade the money-market much easier to

d Somerset. 'Yes, I

ince the late remarkable fluctuations,' insisted the old man. 'Is the

away with the necessity of acquiring fresh impressions from other people's replies; for often after putting a question he looked on the floor, as if the subject were at an end.

he common that the dining-room contained. One was a singular glass case over the fireplace, within which were some large mediaeval door-keys, black with rust and age; and the others

omerset's glance at the keys. 'They used to unlock the principal entrance-doors, which were knocked to pieces in the civi

mere lumber-particularly

aits of my great-grandfather and mother. Paula would give all the old family picture

clay now-mere forgotten dust, not worthy a moment's inquiry or reflection at this distance of time. Nothing can retain t

tter with which Sir William De Stancy least cared to occupy himself before visitors was the his

on with being mindful of me; but he has always died or gone elsewhere before the event has taken place.... But with a disposition to be happy, it is neither this place nor the other that can render us the reverse. In

ly did cultivate that art, pa

f that remark better than I. If a man knows how to spend less than his income, however small that may be, why-he has the philosopher's stone.' And Sir William looked in Som

asked his visitor to walk with him into the garden, and no sooner were they alone than he continued: 'Well, Mr. Somerset, you are down here sketch

nk they were rather

t where they lie. It is better to know where your luck lies

ber it,' sa

bject of finding out where your luck lies, is that nobody is so unfortunate as not to have a lucky star in some

ooking

ently, and yet you may have more luck in the latter. Then stick to

uite at one with

people, wherever you find them. My daughter has unconsciously followed that maxim. She has struck up a warm friendship with our neighbour, Miss Power, at the castle. We are diametrically different from her in associations, traditions, ideas, religion-she comes of a violent dissenting fami

he wood as he had come, feeling that he had been talking with a man of simple nature, who flattered his own understanding by devising Machiavell

e was a fire, and stood with one foot on the fender. The landlord was talking to some guest who sat behind a screen; and, probably because

at their vingers' ends than volks who have succeeded. I assure you that Sir William, so full as he is of wise maxims, never acted upon a wise ma

said the invi

jonnick face, as white as his clothes with keeping late hours. There was nothing black about him but his hair and his eyes-he wore no beard at that time-and they were black as slooes. The like of his coming on the race-course was never seen there afore nor since. He drove his ikkipage hisself; and it was always hauled by four beautiful white horses, and two outriders

bserved; and Somerset fancied that the voice had in it somet

to other hands.... The way it was done was curious. Mr. Wilkins, who was the first owner after it went from Sir William, actually sat down as a guest at his table, and got up as the owner. He took off, at a round su

the baronet to

e his illness, that he came to that little place, in zight

has not the manner of

bear a zight of the place, but since then he is happy nowhere else, and never leaves the parish further than to drive once a week to Markton. His head won't stand society nowadays, and he lives qui

daughter? Is she really hire

y. O no, not hired exactly, but she mostly lives with Miss Power, and goes about with her, and I dare say Miss Power makes it wo'th her while

'tis

De Stancy as if she were a god-a'mighty, and Miss Power lets her love her to her heart's cont

glass partition to gain a glimpse of a man whose interest in the neighbourhood seemed to have arisen so s