zabethan architecture.

More than two hundred years old, it had been remodelled and added to by
its various successive owners, but much of its fine old, original plan
was left.

Ivy clung to its walls, and birds fluttered in and out continually.

There was a tower on either side the great entrance, and Patty loved to
fancy that awful and mysterious deeds had been committed within those
frowning walls.

But there was no legend or tradition attached to the mansion, and all its
history seemed to be peaceful and pleasant.

Even the quaint old yew-tree walk, with its strangely misshapen
shrubbery, was bright and cheerful in the morning sunlight, and the lake
rippled like silver, and gave no hint of dark or gloomy depths.

And yet, Patty couldn't help feeling that there was some shadow hanging
over the Hartley family. They were never sad or low-spirited, but
sometimes Mrs. Hartley would sigh, or Grandma Cromarty would look
anxious, as if at some unrelievable sorrow.

The boys were always light-hearted and gay, but Mabel often had moods of
despondency, which, while they never made her cross or irritable, were so
pathetic that it worried Patty's loving heart.

And so she lay in her hammock, gazing at the beauty all about her, and
wondering what was the secret grief that harassed her dear friends. It
never occurred to her that it was none of her affair, for Patty was
possessed of a healthy curiosity, and moreover she was innately of a
helpful nature, and longed to know what the trouble was, in a vague hope
that she might be of some assistance.

"I know they're not rich," she said to herself, "for the whole place
shows neglect and shabbiness; but there's something besides lack of money
that makes Madam Cromarty sad."

The place was indeed in a state of unrepair. Though there were many
servants, there were not enough to do all that should have been done. The
two gardeners did their best to keep the flowers in order, but the
elaborate conventional gardens, laid out in geometric designs, and
intricate paths, called for a complete staff of trained workers, and in
the absence of these, became overgrown at their borders and untidy in
appearance.

It was the same indoors. The handsome old furniture, covered with silk
brocades and tapestries, was worn and sometimes ragged in appearance.
Some of the decorations showed need of regilding, and though the
magnificent old carved woodwork, and tessellated floors could not be
marre