ives entrance. On descending into this unfrequented road, I
was surprised to see a carriage standing there. A thin, sly postilion,
with that pert, turned-up nose which the old caricaturist Woodward used to
attribute to the gentlemen of Tewkesbury, was leaning on his horses, and
looked hard at me as I passed. A lady who sat within looked out, with an
extra-fashionable bonnet on, and also treated us to a stare. Very pink and
white cheeks she had, very black glossy hair and bright eyes--fat, bold,
and rather cross, she looked--and in her bold way she examined us curiously
as we passed.

I mistook the situation. It had once happened before that an intending
visitor at Knowl had entered the place by that park-road, and lost several
hours in a vain search for the house.

'Ask him, Madame, whether they want to go to the house; I dare say they
have missed their way,' whispered I.

'_Eh bien,_ they will find again. I do not choose to talk to post-boys;
_allons_!'

But I asked the man as we passed, 'Do you want to reach the house?'

By this time he was at the horses' heads, buckling the harness.

'Noa,' he said in a surly tone, smiling oddly on the winkers, but,
recollecting his politeness, he added, 'Noa, thankee, misses, it's what
they calls a picnic; we'll be takin' the road now.'

He was smiling now on a little buckle with which he was engaged.

'Come--nonsense!' whispered Madame sharply in my ear, and she whisked me by
the arm, so we crossed the little stile at the other side.

Our path lay across the warren, which undulates in little hillocks. The sun
was down by this time, blue shadows were stretching round us, colder in the
splendid contrast of the burnished sunset sky.

Descending over these hillocks we saw three figures a little in advance of
us, not far from the path we were tracing. Two were standing smoking and
chatting at intervals: one tall and slim, with a high chimney-pot, worn a
little on one side, and a white great-coat buttoned up to the chin; the
other shorter and stouter, with a dark-coloured wrapper. These gentlemen
were facing rather our way as we came over the edge of the eminence, but
turned their backs on perceiving our approach. As they did so, I remember
so well each lowered his cigar suddenly with the simultaneousness of a
drill. The third figure sustained the picnic character of the group, for he
was repacking a hamper. He stood suddenly erect as we drew near, and a very
ill-looking person