by
a rising ground clothed with woods, sloping down at the south towards
the glebe pasture-grounds through which ran the brooklet, sufficiently
near for its brawling gurgle to be heard on a still day. Kenelm sat
himself on an antique tomb, which was evidently appropriated to some one
of higher than common rank in bygone days, but on which the sculpture
was wholly obliterated.

The stillness and solitude of the place had their charms for his
meditative temperament; and he remained there long, forgetful of time,
and scarcely hearing the boom of the clock that warned him of its lapse.

When suddenly, a shadow--the shadow of a human form--fell on the grass
on which his eyes dreamily rested. He looked up with a start, and beheld
Lily standing before him mute and still. Her image was so present in his
thoughts at the moment that he felt a thrill of awe, as if the thoughts
had conjured up her apparition. She was the first to speak.

"You here, too?" she said very softly, almost whisperingly. "Too!"
echoed Kenelm, rising; "too! 'Tis no wonder that I, a stranger to
the place, should find my steps attracted towards its most venerable
building. Even the most careless traveller, halting at some remote
abodes of the living, turns aside to gaze on the burial-ground of the
dead. But my surprise is that you, Miss Mordaunt, should be attracted
towards the same spot."

"It is my favourite spot," said Lily, "and always has been. I have sat
many an hour on that tombstone. It is strange to think that no one knows
who sleeps beneath it. The 'Guide Book to Moleswich,' though it gives
the history of the church from the reign in which it was first built,
can only venture a guess that this tomb, the grandest and oldest in the
burial-ground, is tenanted by some member of a family named Montfichet,
that was once very powerful in the county, and has become extinct since
the reign of Henry VI. But," added Lily, "there is not a letter of the
name Montfichet left. I found out more than any one else has done; I
learned black-letter on purpose; look here," and she pointed to a small
spot in which the moss had been removed. "Do you see those figures?
are they not XVIII? and look again, in what was once the line above
the figures, ELE. It must have been an Eleanor, who died at the age of
eighteen--"

"I rather think it more probable that the figures refer to the date
of the death, 1318 perhaps; and so far as I can decipher black-letter,
which is mor