'll find the gate
open; walk straight through, and don't forget to go through the
beech-wood at the back of the house; the river runs right round the
hill. I want to know what you think of the view. But pray don't ask to
see the house; there's nothing to see; the housemaids would be sure
to talk, and describe you to my sisters. So now goodbye; hope you'll
enjoy yourself. I shall have just time to get to Hambrook and back; I
want to see my solicitor. You'll have seen everything in a couple of
hours, so in a couple of hours I shall be waiting for you here.'

Part II

It was as the Major said. The lodge-keepers asked no questions, and
they passed up the drive, through the silence of an overgrowth of
laurels and rhododendrons. Then the park opened before their
eyes. Nellie rolled on the short, crisp, worn grass, or chased the
dragonflies; the spreading trees enchanted her, and, looking at the
house--a grey stone building with steps, pillars, and pilasters,
hidden amid cedars and evergreen oaks--she said, 'I never saw anything
so beautiful; is that where the Major goes when he leaves us? Look at
the flowers, Mother, and the roses. May we not go in there--I don't
mean into the house? I heard the Major ask you not to go in for fear
we should meet the housemaids--but just past this railing, into
the garden? Here is the gate.' The child stood with her hand on the
wicket, waiting for reply: the mother stood as in a dream, looking
at the house, thinking vaguely of the pictures, the corridors, and
staircases, that lay behind the plate-glass windows.

'Yes; go in, my child.'

The gardens were in tumult of leaf and bloom, and the little girl ran
hither and thither, gathering single flowers, and then everything
that came under her hands, binding them together in bouquets--one
for mother, one for the Major, and one for herself. Mrs Shepherd only
smiled a little bitterly when Nellie came running to her with some new
and more splendid rose. She did not attempt to reprove the child. Why
should she? Everything here would one day be hers. Why then should
the present be denied them? And so did her thoughts run as she walked
across the sward following Nellie into the beech wood that clothed the
steep hillside. The pathway led by the ruins of some Danish military
earthworks, ancient hollows full of leaves and silence. Pigeons cooed
in the vast green foliage, and from time to time there came up from
the river the chiming sound of oars.