“No, I am not going in,” she said, and went quickly upstairs. As she did so, the drawing-room opened, and she heard the squire say, in his most genial tone—the tone which indicated that he was peculiarly well pleased, “You must let me show you round the old place, Mr. Faradeane,” and she paused and listened for the grave, musical voice replying in the affirmative; then, leaning over the old oak balustrade, looked down at them as they passed out, with a strange expression on her lovely face—an expression which it had never yet worn for any man she had seen!
The squire and Mr. Faradeane made their way round the grounds, and presently, as if unconsciously, the elder man linked his arm within that of the younger, an action very unusual with the squire, and one which indicated the favorable impression his visitor had made upon him.
“It is a very beautiful place,” said Mr. Faradeane, when they had made the round of the flower gardens and lawns, and looked in at the great, walled garden, with its hundreds of peach and nectarine trees, and at the long length of green-houses in which the gardener grew the choice flowers which would, if he had entered them, have taken the first prize at all the local shows, “a very beautiful place; I think it would be sinful not to be proud of it, Mr. Vanley.”
The squire looked at him with a nod of appreciation, then suddenly his face clouded, and he stifled a sigh.
“There is plenty of room for improvement,” he said, as if to account for the sigh.
“There always is,” said Faradeane. “Fortunately, no place is perfect—we should tire of it very soon if it were. Don’t you think a plantation on that rise to the left of the lawn would be a good thing?”
The squire nodded.
“Yes,” he said, moodily. “Yes; but it would cost——” He stopped and glanced at the handsome face quickly. “I’m afraid you think I must be very niggardly to grudge a few hundreds for so evident an improvement; but——”
He paused; and Faradeane, with the tact which seemed so easy when he chose to display it, said:
“In these days no man has too much money.”