glitter, laying lovely lines of light over the
turf. Dolly wandered on and on, allured by the continual change and
variety of lovely combination in which grass, trees, and sunlight
played before her eyes. But after a while the beauty took a different
cast. The old oaks and beeches ceased; she found herself among a
lighter growth, of much younger trees, some of them very ornamental,
and in the great diversity of kinds showing that they were a modern
plantation. What a plantation it was! for Dolly could not seem to get
to the end of it. She went fast; the afternoon was passing, and she was
curious to see what would succeed to this young wood; though it is
hardly right to call it a wood; the trees were not close to each other,
but stood apart to give every one a fair chance for developing its own
peculiar manner of growth. Some had reached a height and breadth of
beauty already; some could be only beautiful at every stage of growth;
very many of them were quite strange to Dolly; they were foreign trees,
gathered from many quarters. She went on, until she began to think she
must give it up and turn back; she was by this time far from home; but
just then she saw that the plantation was coming to an end on that
side; light was breaking through the branches. She pressed forward
eagerly a few steps; and on a sudden stood still, almost with a cry of
delight. The plantation did end there abruptly, and at the edge of it
began a great stretch of level green, just spotted here and there with
magnificent trees, singly or in groups. And at the further edge of this
green plain, dressed, not hidden, by these intervening trees, rose a
most beautiful building. It seemed to Dolly like a castle in a fairy
tale, so bewitchingly lovely and stately it stood there, with the
evening sunlight playing upon its turrets, and battlements, and all
that grand sweep of lawn lying at its feet. This must be the "house" of
which Lawrence had spoken; but surely it was rather a castle. The style
was Gothic; the building stretched along the ground to a lordly extent
for a "house," and yet in the light grace and adornment of its
structure it hardly looked like anything so grim as a castle. The
stillness was utter; some cattle under the trees on the lawn were the
only living things to be seen.

Dolly could not satisfy herself with looking. This was something that
she had read about and heard about; a real English baronial residence.
But was it reality? it was