The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-09-23
PART I.

Or from the crevice peer'd about
old faces glimmerd thro' the doors.
Old footsteps trod the upper floors,
Old voices called her from without
My eyes had been occupied with The
gray chimneys below, among the Span
ish chestnuts, at the very moment wher
slipped on the northern face of Skirrie
and twisted my ankle. This indeed ex'
plains the accident; and the accident
explains why my interest in the house
with the gray chimneys suddenly be-
came a personal one. Five miles sep
arated me from my inn In Aber town.
But the white smoke of a goods train
went crawling across the green and cul-
tivated plain at my feet; and i knew,
though / carried no map, that some
where under the slope to my left must
hide the country station of Llanfihangel.
To reach 1t 1 must pass the house, and
there, no doubt, would happen on some
one to set neon the shortest way.
So picked up my wallSing-stick and
hobbled down tho hillside, albeit with
pain. Whero the descent eased little
l found and followed a foot-track,
which In time turned into sunk road
scored deep with old cart-ruts, and so
brought mo to q desolate farmstead
slowly dropping to ruin there in the
perpetual shadow of the mountain.
The states that had fallen from the roof
of byre and stable lay buried already
under the growth Of nettle and mallow
and wild parsnip; and the yard-wall
was down in a dozen places. i shuffled
through one o. these gaps, and almost
at once found myself face to face with
park-fence of split oak-in yet worse
repair, IL that were possible. 1t
stretched away right and left, with
promise of a noble circumference; but
no hand had repaired it for at least
twenty years. counted no less than
seven breaches through which a man of
common size might stepwithout.squeez
ing; availed myself of the nearest; and
having with difficulty dragged my dis
abled foot up the ha-ha slope beyond,
took breath at the top and looked about
me.
The edge of the ha-ha stood but fifty
PAGES back from an avenue of the most
magnificent Spanish chestputs l have
ever seen in my life. A few of them
were withering from the top; and under
these many dead houghs lay as they
had fallen, in grass that obliterated al
most all trace Of the broad carriage
road. But nine out of ten stood hale
and stout, and apparently good for Gen.
turies to come. Northward, tho gray
facade OF tho house glimmercd and
closed their green prospective, and to-
wards IL now made my way.
But / must own this avenue daunted
me, as q frame altogether too lordly for
a mere limping pedestrian. And there
fore was relieved, as drew near, to
catch the sound of voices behind the
strawberries on my right hand. This.
determined me to take the house in
flank, and / diverged and pushed my
way between the laurels in search of
tho speakers.
"a horse horse! My kingdom for
horse! Lobelia, how Many horses has
your father In stable? Red, white or
grayP"
"One, Miss Wilhelmina; an that's
old Sentry-go, and father says he'll have
TO 60 to the knacker's before another
winter"
Then he shall carry me there on his
back; with rings on my fingers and bells
on my toes
She rode unto the knacler's yard,
And tried at the pin:
Right glad were then the cats meat men
To lot that lady In!
especially, Lobelia, when she alight-
ed and sat upon the ground and began
to tell them sad stories of the death Of
king. But they cut of Sentry-go's
head and nailed it over the gate. So
he died, and she very imprudently mar
ried the master knacker, who had
heard she was an heiress in her own
right, and wanted 10 decorate his coat
of-arms with an escutcheon of pretense;
and besides, his doctor had recommend
ed q complete change"
Law, miss, how you do run on!"
The young lady who had given utter
ancc to this amazing rigmarolc stood at
the top Of terrace flight (much
cracked and broken) between two laden
statuettes (headless); willowy child
in q large-brimmcd hat, with riding
switch In one hand and the other hold
ing up an old tartan shawl, which she
had pinned about her TO initiate horse
woman's habit. As she paced to and
fro between the leaden statuettes,
pedes vestis defluxit al imos
TT Vera incessu potuit dea,
and noted almost at onoe that two or
three utterflies-"red admirals" they
were--foated and circled about her in
the sunlight A child of commoner
make and perhaps year older, dressed
in buff print frock and pink sunbon-
net. looked up at her from the foot Of
the steps. The faces of both were
avertcd, and stood there for at least a
minute on the verge of the laurels,
unobserved, considering the picture
they made, and the ruinous Jacobean
house that formed its background.
Never was house more eloquent Of
desolation. Unpainted shutters, crack
ing in the heat, blocked one half of its
windows Wcathpr-stains ran down tho