The house, added to at her ladyship’s pleasure, and without regard to cost, covered a considerable extent of ground.  The new part consisted of a straight range of about a hundred and twenty feet, facing the lake, and commandingly placed on the crest of a steepish slope; the old buildings, at right angles with the new, made a quadrangle, the third and fourth sides of which were formed by the dead walls of servants’ rooms and coach-houses, which had no windows upon this inner enclosed side.  The old buildings were low and irregular, one portion of the roof thatched, another tiled.  In the quadrangle there was an old-fashioned garden, with geometrical flower-beds, a yew tree hedge, and a stone sun-dial in the centre.  A peacock stalked about in the morning light, and greeted the newly risen sun with a discordant scream.  Presently a man came out of a half glass door under a verandah which shaded one side of the quadrangle, and strolled about the garden, stopping here and there to cut a dead rose, or trim a geranium, a stoutly-built broad shouldered man, with gray hair and beard, the image of well-fed respectability.

Mr. Hammond wondered a little at the man’s leisurely movements as he sauntered about, whistling to the peacock.  It was not the manner of a servant who had duties to perform—­rather that of a gentleman living at ease, and hardly knowing how to get rid of his time.

“Some superior functionary, I suppose,” thought Hammond, “the house-steward, perhaps.”

He rambled a long way over the hill, and came back to Fellside by a path of his own discovering, which brought him to a wooden gate leading into the stable-yard, just in time to meet Maulevrier and Lady Mary emerging from the kennel, where his lordship had been inspecting the terriers.

‘Angelina is bully about the muzzle,’ said Maulevrier; ’we shall have to give her away.’

‘Oh, don’t,’ cried Mary.  ’She is a most perfect darling, and laughs so deliciously whenever she sees me.’

Angelina was in Lady Mary’s arms at this moment; a beautifully marked little creature, all thew and sinew, palpitating with suppressed emotions, and grinning to her heart’s content.

Lady Mary looked very fresh and bright in her neat tailor gown, kilted kirtle, and tight-fitting bodice, with neat little brass buttons.  It was a gown of Maulevrier’s ordering, made at his own tailor’s.  Her splendid chestnut hair was uncovered, the short crisp curls about her forehead dancing in the morning air.  Her large, bright; brown eyes were dancing, too, with delight at having her brother home again.

She shook hands with Mr. Hammond more graciously than last night; but still with a carelessness which was not complimentary, looking at him absently, as if she hardly knew that he was there, and hugging Angelina all the time.