doors leading from room to room had been taken off; the old
worm-eaten boards had been roughly stained; a few old French engravings
had been hung here and there where the encroaching books left an
opening; but otherwise all was bare. There was a curious charm in the
space and air of these empty rooms, with their latticed windows opening
on to the hill; and letting in day by day the summer sun-risings or the
winter dawns, which had shone upon them for more than three centuries.

'This is my last day of privilege,' said Robert. 'Everybody is shut out
when once he appears, from this wing, and this part of the grounds. This
was his father's room,' and the rector led the way into the last of the
series; 'and through there,' pointing to a door on the right, 'lies the
way to his own sleeping room, which is of course connected with the more
modern side of the house.'

'So this is where that old man ventured "what Cato did and Addison
approved,"' murmured Langham, standing in the middle of the room and
looking round him. This particular room was now used as a sort of lumber
place, a receptacle for the superfluous or useless books gradually
thrown off by the great collection all around. There were innumerable
volumes in frayed or broken bindings lying on the ground. A musty smell
hung over it all; the gray light from outside, which seemed to give only
an added subtlety and charm to the other portions of the ancient
building through which they had been moving, seemed here _triste_ and
dreary. Or Langham fancied it.

He passed the threshold again with a little sigh, and saw suddenly
before him at the end of the suite of rooms, and framed in the doorways
facing him, an engraving of a Greuze picture--a girl's face turned over
her shoulder, the hair waving about her temples, the lips parted, the
teeth gleaming, mirth and provocation and tender yielding in every line.
Langham started, and the blood rushed to his heart. It was as though
Rose herself stood there and beckoned to him.

CHAPTER XV

'Now, having seen our sight,' said Robert, as they left the great mass
of Murewell behind them, 'come and see our scandal. Both run by the same
proprietor, if you please. There is a hamlet down there in the
hollow'--and he pointed to a gray speck in the distance--'which deserves
a Royal Commission all to itself, which is a _disgrace_'--and his tone
warmed--'to any country, any owner, any agent! It is owned by Mr.
Wendover, and I see