and in no degree for use or comfort? And
now as he stood there he could already see that men were at work
about the place, that ground had been moved here, and grass laid down
there, and a new gravel road constructed in another place. Was it not
possible that his friends should be entertained without all these
changes in the gardens? Then he perceived the tents, and descending
from the terrace and turning to the left towards the end of the house
he came upon a new conservatory. The exotics with which it was to
be filled were at this moment being brought in on great barrows. He
stood for a moment and looked, but said not a word to the men. They
gazed at him but evidently did not know him. How should they know
him,--him, who was so seldom there, and who when there never showed
himself about the place? Then he went farther afield from the house
and came across more and more men. A great ha-ha fence had been made,
enclosing on three sides a large flat and turfed parallelogram of
ground, taken out of the park and open at one end to the gardens,
containing, as he thought, about an acre. "What are you doing this
for?" he said to one of the labourers. The man stared at him, and
at first seemed hardly inclined to make him an answer. "It be for
the quality to shoot their bows and harrows," he said at last, as
he continued the easy task of patting with his spade the completed
work. He evidently regarded this stranger as an intruder who was not
entitled to ask questions, even if he were permitted to wander about
the grounds.

From one place he went on to another and found changes, and new
erections, and some device for throwing away money everywhere. It
angered him to think that there was so little of simplicity left in
the world that a man could not entertain his friends without such a
fuss as this. His mind applied itself frequently to the consideration
of the money, not that he grudged the loss of it, but the spending of
it in such a cause. And then perhaps there occurred to him an idea
that all this should not have been done without a word of consent
from himself. Had she come to him with some scheme for changing
everything about the place, making him think that the alterations
were a matter of taste or of mere personal pleasure, he would
probably have given his assent at once, thinking nothing of the
money. But all this was sheer display. Then he walked up and saw the
flag waving over the Castle, indicating that he, the Lord