"Oh, as to the going, we shan't have to go far. They come to us. We have tables, forms, and chairs out on the lawn; and there's eating and drinking, you may make sure of that; and after that—but you'll see enough of it before it is over. And you must put your books away for that day, at any rate."
"Are your tenants a very noisy set?" asked quiet John.
"Oh, they are not as still as mice, and they don't roar quite so loud as lions. They are a decent set altogether; and with two Oxford men to keep them in order, we shall do. It will be something to amuse you, I dare say."
"I am afraid not," said John, wearily; "but I suppose I must do what you bid me."
"Of course you must," said Richard Grigson.
[CHAPTER II.]
THE LOVERS' WALK.
LEAVING Tincroft for the present to the hospitalities of the Manor House, we introduce two other actors in our domestic drama. The time is evening; the place, an old-fashioned garden; the date, a year or thereabouts before that of our previous chapter, for necessity is laid upon us to take a retrograde step or two before fairly starting off in our history.