On each side of these ornamented grounds, and behind the house, stood the ancient woods, where the fine old forest-trees were kept well trimmed and free from undergrowth by the zeal of old Davy Denny, the head-gardener, whose care of the place was a labor of earnest love.
And this was well, else, for all the interest taken in it by the proprietress, the Honorable Mrs. Elverton, this paradise might have fallen into desolation, or been transformed to a Gehenna.
For this beautiful Edenlawn, though a comparatively new place, was a house with a very dark history.
It was some years before the time of which we now write that the Honorable Hollis Elverton, only son of Baron Elverton of Torg Castle, in Yorkshire, while staying in Paris, married the beautiful and haughty Athenie de la Compte, daughter of that celebrated General de la Compte who held so high a place in the esteem of the ex-King Louis Phillippe and in the councils of the nation.
Athenie de la Compte was a tall and dark brunette, with raven-black hair and flashing black eyes, and with an imperious temper and a commanding presence.
Immediately after their marriage the young couple set out for a lengthened tour on the Continent, and came to England only at the end of twelvemonths.
After a short season spent in London, where the imperial beauty of Mrs. Elverton created an immense sensation, at the close of the summer the young husband brought his youthful wife home to his beautiful villa of Edenlawn, which had been built, furnished, and adorned by Lord Elverton expressly for the residence of his son and daughter-in-law.
A few days after their settlement at home they were joined by a select party of invited guests, who came down from town on a visit of a few weeks.
Mrs. Elverton then issued cards for a large evening party to all the neighboring nobility and gentry. The party was a great success, and formed the initiative of a series of neighborhood festivities.
It was in the midst of all this gaiety that the thunderbolt fell that struck the proud Athenie to the dust and spread a desert round her.