rplus wealth
amongst innumerable and deserving charities that the arrival by post of
a nurseryman's catalogue excited them no more than that of an appeal to
subscribe to a new mission.

The beautiful old furniture, huddled in the disused rooms and in the
great range of attics that ran under the high-pitched roof, gave them
immense happiness in the arrangement. They were not in the least alive
to its value at that time, though they had become so in some degree
since, but kept rather quiet about it for fear that their nephew might
wish to carry some of it off to the great house. They thought it very
old-fashioned and rather absurd, and they also held this view of the
beautifully carved and panelled rooms of their old house, which were
certainly too dark for perfect comfort. But they disposed everything to
the best advantage, and produced without knowing it an effect which no
diligent collector could have equalled, and which became still more
delightful and satisfying as the years went on.

Cicely walked across the level park and went through a deep wood,
entering by an iron gate the garden of the dower-house, which seemed to
have been built in a clearing, although it was older than the oldest of
the trees that hemmed it round. On this hot summer afternoon it stood
shaded and cool, and the very fragrance of its old-fashioned garden
seeming to be confined and concentrated by the heavy foliage. There was
not a leaf too many. But in the autumn it was damp and close and in the
winter very dark. A narrow drive of about a hundred yards led straight
from the main road to the porch and showed a blue telescopic glimpse of
distant country. If all the trees had been cut down in front to the
width of the house it would have stood out as a thing of beauty against
its green background, air and light would have been let into the best
rooms and the pleasant view of hill and vale opened up to them. But the
Squire, tentatively approached years before by his affectionate and
submissive aunts, had decisively refused to cut down any trees at all,
and four out of the six of them had taken their last look of this world
out of one or other of those small-paned windows and seen only a great
bank of laurels--even those they were not allowed to cut down--across a
narrow space of gravel, and the branches of oaks not quite ripe for
felling, above them.

Cicely went through a garden door opening on to a stone-floored passage
which ran right through