The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-14
D ". B. M1AxWELL, Ass4.s q sTAs 0usraea Fians.- . yhe nlgge1 DEesseneers
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| some other time Miss Crunden---what? l.-. Oh. say, tell your father I'm a Mason now. He don't come to lodge lnow--nor old Jack. Too busy rakin' In the doilars--what?" And Lizzie was l free to continue her walk without es- cort. The empty houses of Hill Rise were dreadful to see Glass in windows had been broken by wanton boys: slates had fallen from roofs and lay in frag- ments upon the moss-grown steps of 1 porches. or the weed-covered gravel of the carriage drives; spiintered gates hung upon rusty hinges: the bare haw- thorns were making thickets. and the l untrimmed laurels were growing into I forest trees. From house to house si- lence and desolation reigned where once had been friendly intercourse, chatter and frivoiity-~the Htil Rise girls at home whether really at home or visit ing; calling, to each other by name over garden walls or across the broad | road. running in upon each other as members of one large. highiy-distin- guished family. Now. with the family uprooted. banished, scattered wide. HflI Rise was fast sinking into the dilapi- dated and ruinous state of MT. Selby's River View.
 Beyond these deserted houses. when one came to the property of the London and Suubrban Trust. 1t required the 1 strongest effort of memory to summon up the picture of Hill House. Truly not the slightest vestige of it was left. One looked. down smooth, we'll finished roads into a little thriving suburb of red brick houses. The sunlight shone on plate glass, brass knockers. emerald green shutters; the cloud shadows fiit- ' ted across white woodwork, rough-cast upper stories. and stone copings; here was new life, activity, Joyfulness set | Q q < carts rattled around the corners of the new roads; tradesmen's boys leaned bicycles against the new railings; young men and women came laughing and talking out of the new front doors;Na a man with bell was selling muff,ns as quickly as he could hand them to the waiting maids of all these new households. Trade was so brisk that the mufiin man had no time to ring his bell. This was new Medford, 1 self -constrained, self-satisfied, knowing nothing of, and caring nothing for. the ancient traditions of the aristocratic Hin.
 Lizzie with difiiculty reconstituted the vanished scene. All along here were the high walls: and behind them the stately trees. Here, just here. must have been the gates; and. pausing here. in the drowsy summer time. one used to look down the drive-grass on each
 
 dodendron, beautiful Towering shrubs making spots of bright color in front of the dark foliage Well-ordered peace. ,well-maintained dignity. we'll sheltered magnificepce held one mute respectful, spellbound, as. in the old white gates that guarded the home of the great Sir John.
 And behind her. on her fathers land, the change was almost as tremendous. Who could believe that these once were secluded meadows, smiling parkland, walled, fenced. secure from prying eyes and wandering feet? It was all open to the world now: any one might walk up Crunden's roads as far as the roads vent and thence onward over the wet grass Any one might roam at will, with the children from the lower cot- tages shouting and laughing in their play. where once the ground was sacred to the use of Lady Haddenham's cattle and the members and guests of an extraordinarily select tennis club. Close to the site of the old club pa- vilion,e the last and innermost of papa's decoy houses stood still unfinished: for the day abandoned by the Workmen, and looking as if it had been A&endoned forever. The roof timbers we.e in po- sition. but no tiles had yet arrived: it was an ugly carcass very slowly turn ing itself into a habitable dwelling. No road gave access to 1t; the nearest granite blocks for road-curbing lay afar of, almost hidden by the long grass. weather-stafned, dull. with out the least glitter from them: scaf- fold poles, piled boards. clipped bricks lay untidi1y all about 1t, trenches that had been dug for drains had filled with water while waiting fer drain-pipes. Beyond 1t stretched the wide area of still open ground. spotted here and there with completed houses. and on the fringe the cottages-sno oke rising slowly from the chimneys of the first two rows, no smoke at all from the other rows--and the backs of the mon- strous hoardings set up for advertise ments The view was of park de- stroyed. a building estate not yet de- veioped. No one could take comfort from this great change for an unde- veloped building estate is perhaps the ugliest prospect in the universe.
 As Lizzie turned her back on it and walked swiftly towards the common. the sense of guilt oppressed her. Sud-