nd a cortege of mounted yeomen. There were addresses, and
triumphal arches, and newspaper paragraphs, and all the innumerable but
well-known accompaniments of those patronizing acts of condescension,
which consist in the visit of a rich man to his own home. Now, however,
all was different. No cheering sounds broke the quiet stillness of the
deep valley. No troops of people on horseback or on foot filled the
glen. The sun set, calm and golden, behind the purple hills, unscared by
the lurid glow of a single bonfire. Save from an appearance of increased
bustle, and an air of movement and stir around the lodge itself, there
was nothing to mark his coming. There, indeed, servants were seen to
pass and re-pass; workmen were employed upon the flower-garden and the
shrubbery walks; and all the indications of care and attention to
the villa and its grounds easily perceptible. Beyond these precincts,
however, all was still and solitary as before. For miles the road could
be seen without a single traveller. The mountains seemed destitute of
inhabitants. The peaceful solemnity of the deep glen, along which
the cloud shadows moved slowly in procession, increased the sense of
loneliness, and Sir Marmaduke already began to suspect, that this
last trial of a residence would scarcely prove more fortunate than the
previous ones.

Age and wealth are uncomplying task-masters--habit and power endure
restraint with an ill grace. The old baronet was half angry with himself
for what he felt a mistake, and he could not forgive the country which
was the cause of it. He had come expressly to see and pronounce for
himself--to witness with his own eyes, to hear with his own ears--and
yet he knew not how it was, nothing revealed itself before him. The
very labourers who worked in the garden seemed uncommunicative and shy.
Their great respect and reverence he understood as a cautious reserve.
He must send for Hemsworth--there was nothing else for it. Hemsworth
was used to them, and could explain the mode of dealing with them. Their
very idioms required translating, and he could not advance without an
interpreter.

Not so his daughter. To her the scene had all the charm of romance. The
lone dwelling beside the blue lake, the tall and peaked mountains lost
in the white clouds, the waving forest with its many a tangled path, the
bright islands that, gem-like, spangled the calm surface of the water,
realized many a poetic dream of her childhood, and she