; for it was but an inferior construction
of the past century, ornamented simply by a gable and a bull's-eye, but
flanked by a lordly dovecote.

It derived a certain air of dignity from two small terraces, one
above the other, in front of it, while the triple flight of steps was
supported by balusters of granite. Two animals, which had once, perhaps,
resembled lions, were placed one upon each side of the balustrade at
the platform of the highest terrace; and they had been staring there
for more than a hundred and fifty years. Behind the house stretched
the garden; and in its midst, mounted on a stone arch, stood a dismal
sun-dial with hearts and spades painted between its figures; while
the trees around it were trimmed into the shapes of confessionals and
chess-pawns. To the right, a labyrinth of young trees, similarly
clipped in the fashion of the time, led by a thousand devious turns to
a mysterious valley, where one heard continually a low, sad murmur. This
proceeded from a nymph in terra-cotta, from whose urn dripped, day and
night, a thin rill of water into a small fishpond, bordered by grand
old poplars, whose shadows threw upon its surface, even at mid-day, the
blackness of Acheron.

Camors's first reflection at viewing this prospect was an exceedingly
painful one; and the second was even more so.

At another time he would doubtless have taken an interest in searching
through these souvenirs of the past for traces of an infant nurtured
there, who had a mother, and who had perhaps loved these old relics.
But his system did not admit of sentiment, so he crushed the ideas that
crowded to his mind, and, after a rapid glance around him, called for
his dinner.

The old steward and his wife--who for thirty years had been the sole
inhabitants of Reuilly--had been informed of his coming. They had spent
the day in cleaning and airing the house; an operation which added to
the discomfort they sought to remove, and irritated the old residents of
the walls, while it disturbed the sleep of hoary spiders in their dusty
webs. A mixed odor of the cellar, of the sepulchre, and of an old coach,
struck Camors when he penetrated into the principal room, where his
dinner was to be served.

Taking up one or two flickering candles, the like of which he had never
seen before, Camors proceeded to inspect the quaint portraits of his
ancestors, who seemed to stare at him in great surprise from their
cracked canvases. They were a dilap