old the valley, was Fairfield; and here, close on the left, as he
faced the lake, were Silver Howe and Helm Crag, with that stony
excrescence on the summit of the latter known as the 'Lion and the
Lamb.' Lady Maulevrier's house stood within a circle of mountain peaks
and long fells, which walled in the deep, placid, fertile valley.

'If you are not too tired to see the gardens, we might show them to you
before breakfast,' said Maulevrier. 'We have three-quarters of an hour
to the good.'

'Half an hour for a stroll, and a quarter to make myself presentable
after my long walk,' said Hammond, who did not wish to face the dowager
and Lady Lesbia in disordered apparel. Lady Mary was such an obvious
Tomboy that he might be pardoned for leaving her out of the question.

They set out upon an exploration of the gardens, Mary clinging to her
brother's arm, as if she wanted to make sure of him, and still carrying
Angelina.

The gardens were as other gardens, but passing beautiful. The sloping
lawns and richly-timbered banks, winding shrubberies, broad terraces cut
on the side of the hill, gave infinite variety. All that wealth and
taste and labour could do to make those grounds beautiful had been
done--the rarest conifers, the loveliest flowering shrubs grew and
flourished there, and the flowers bloomed as they bloom only in
Lakeland, where every cottage garden can show a wealth of luxurious
bloom, unknown in more exposed and arid districts. Mary was very proud
of those gardens. She had loved them and worked in them from her
babyhood, trotting about on chubby legs after some chosen old gardener,
carrying a few weeds or withered leaves in her pinafore, and fancying
herself useful.

'I help 'oo, doesn't I, Teeven?' she used to say to the gray-headed old
gardener, who first taught her to distinguish flowers from weeds.

'I shall never learn as much out of these horrid books as poor old
Stevens taught me,' she said afterwards, when the gray head was at rest
under the sod, and governesses, botany manuals, and hard words from the
Greek were the order of the day.

Nine o'clock was the breakfast hour at Fellside. There were no family
prayers. Lady Maulevrier did not pretend to be pious, and she put no
restraints of piety upon other people. She went to Church on Sunday
mornings for the sake of example; but she read all the newest scientific
books, subscribed to the Anthropological Society, and thought as the
newest scientific peopl