rains," he remarked at last, with an air of amiable
surprise. "I am actually getting wet. I should be pleased to come to
a village."

Fortune may be imagined as petulantly flinging this trifling favour at
his head, in the hope, maybe, of making him realise the general
undesirability of his lot. At any rate, on rounding the next corner of
the ascending road, he saw a small village lying beneath him in the
valley. Immediately below him, at the foot of what was almost a
precipice, approached only by a rough zigzag path, lay a little river;
the village was directly opposite across the stream, but the road,
despairing of such a dip, swerved sharp off to his left, and,
descending gradually, circled one end of the valley till it came to a
bridge and thence made its way round to the cluster of houses. There
were no more than a dozen cottages, a tiny church, and an
inn--certainly an inn, thought Dieppe, as he prepared to follow the
road and pictured his supper already on the fire. But before he set
out, he turned to his right; and there he stood looking at a scene of
some beauty and of undeniable interest. A moment later he began to
walk slowly up-hill in the opposite direction to that which the road
pursued; he was minded to see a little more of the big house perched so
boldly on that bluff above the stream, looking down so scornfully at
the humble village on the other bank.

But habitations are made for men, and to Captain Dieppe beauties of
position or architecture were subordinate to any indications he might
discover or imagine of the characters of the folk who dwelt in a house
and of their manner of living. Thus, not so much the position of the
Castle (it could and did claim that title), or its handsome front, or
the high wall that enclosed it and its demesne on every side save where
it faced the river, caught his attention as the apparently trifling
fact that, whereas one half of the facade was brilliant with lights in
every window, the other half was entirely dark and, to all seeming,
uninhabited. "They are poor, they live in half the rooms only," he
said to himself. But somehow this explanation sounded inadequate. He
drew nearer, till he was close under the wall of the gardens. Then he
noticed a small gate in the wall, sheltered by a little projecting
porch. The Captain edged under the porch, took out a cigar, contrived
to light it, and stood there puffing pensively. He was protected from
the rain, which