ight and glancing, clustered on
the roof of the hall of Cherbury. The steward was in attendance; the
household, all in deep mourning, were assembled; everything was in
readiness for the immediate arrival of Lady Annabel Herbert.

''Tis nearly four years come Martinmas,' said the grey-headed butler,
'since my lady left us.'

'And no good has come of it,' said the housekeeper. 'And for my part I
never heard of good coming from going to foreign parts.'

'I shall like to see Miss Venetia again,' said a housemaid. 'Bless her
sweet face.'

'I never expected to see her Miss Venetia again from all we heard,'
said a footman.

'God's will be done!' said the grey-headed butler; 'but I hope she
will find happiness at home. 'Tis nigh on twenty years since I first
nursed her in these arms.'

'I wonder if there is any new Lord Cadurcis,' said the footman. 'I
think he was the last of the line.'

'It would have been a happy day if I had lived to have seen the poor
young lord marry Miss Venetia,' said the housekeeper. 'I always
thought that match was made in heaven.'

'He was a sweet-spoken young gentleman,' said the housemaid.

'For my part,' said the footman, 'I should like to have seen our real
master, Squire Herbert. He was a famous gentleman by all accounts.'

'I wish they had lived quietly at home,' said the housekeeper.

'I shall never forget the time when my lord returned,' said the
grey-headed butler. 'I must say I thought it was a match.'

'Mistress Pauncefort seemed to think so,' said the housemaid.

'And she understands those things,' said the footman.

'I see the carriage,' said a servant who was at a window in the hall.
All immediately bustled about, and the housekeeper sent a message to
the steward.

The carriage might be just discovered at the end of the avenue. It was
some time before it entered the iron gates that were thrown open for
its reception. The steward stood on the steps with his hat off, the
servants were ranged in order at the entrance. Touching their horses
with the spur, and cracking their whips, the postilions dashed
round the circular plot and stopped at the hall-door. Under any
circumstances a return home after an interval of years is rather an
awful moment; there was not a servant who was not visibly affected.
On the outside of the carriage was a foreign servant and Mistress
Pauncefort, who was not so profuse as might have been expected in her
recognitions of her old friends; her coun