CHAPTER X.

"Yes, friends may be kind, and vales may be green, And brooks, may sparkle along between; But it is not friendship's kindest look, Nor loveliest vale, nor clearest brook, That can tell the tale which is written for me On each old face and well known tree."

R. H. FROUDE.

It was a happy day for both Agnes Wortley and Marian Arundel when they again entered Devonshire. Agnes seemed to feel her four weeks as serious an absence as Marian did her four years, and was even more rapturous in her exclamations at each object that showed her she was near home.

They walked up the last and steepest hill, or rather bounded along the well known side path, catching at the long trailing wreaths of the dogrose, peeping over the gates which broke the high hedge, where Marian, as she saw the moors, could only relieve her heart by pronouncing to herself those words of Manzoni's Lucia, "_Vedo i miei monti._" ("I see my own mountains.") She beheld the woods and the chimneys of the Manor House, but she shrank from looking at it, and gazed, as if she feared it was but a moment's vision, at the rough cottages, the smoke curling among the trees, the red limestone quarry, and the hills far away in the summer garb of golden furze. It was home, her heart was full, and Agnes respected her silence.

Down the hill, along the well-known paling, past the cottages, the dear old faces smiling welcome; the Church, always the same, the green rail of the Vicarage garden, the paint was the only thing new; the porch, with roses hanging thicker over it than ever; Ranger, David Chapple, Jane, the housemaid, all in ecstasy in their different ways.

Answer the following questions:
1. Who was having a good day?
2. Where were they?
3. Where did they enter?
4. How long had Agnes been away?
5. And the other woman?
6. What did they walk up?
7. What did they grab at, while doing this?
8. What did Marian see?
9. What structure did she behold?
10. What did she say to herself?

Numbered answers:
1. Agnes Wortley and Marian Arundel.
2. unknown
3. Devonshire.
4. Four weeks .
5. Four years.
6. The last and steepest hill.
7. The long trailing wreaths of the dogrose.
8. The moors.
9. Manor House
10. "_Vedo i miei monti._"