“It’s the old place I looked at,” he said, “and a jolly old place it is.”

Hester was drinking in the pure sweetness of the fresh air and filling her soul with the beauty of such things as she had never seen before.  In London she had grown hopeless and sick of spirit.  The lodgings in Duke Street, the perpetual morning haddock and questionable eggs and unpaid bills, had been evil things for her.  She had reached a point at which she had felt she could bear them no longer.  Here, at all events, there would be green trees and clear air, and no landlady.  With no rent to pay, there would be freedom from one torment at least.

She had not expected much more than this freedom, however.  It had seemed highly probable that there might be discomforts in an ancient farmhouse of the kind likely to be lent to impecunious relatives.

But before they crossed the threshold it was plain to her that, for some reason, they had been given more.  The old garden had been put in order—­a picturesque and sweet disorderly order, which had allowed creepers to luxuriate and toss, and flowers to spring out of crannies, and clumps of things to mass themselves without restraint.

The girl’s wretched heart lifted itself as they drove up to the venerable brick porch which had somewhat the air of a little church vestibule.  Through the opened door she saw a quaint comfort she had not dreamed of.  She had not the knowledge of things which would have told her what wonders Emily had done with the place, but she could see that its quaint furnishings were oddly beautiful in their harmony.  The heavy chairs and benches and settles seemed to have been part of centuries of farm-house life, and to belong to the place as much as the massive beams and doors.

Hester stood in the middle of the hall and looked about her.  Part of it was oak panelled and part was whitewashed.  There were deep, low windows cut in the thick walls.

“I never saw anything the least like it,” she said.

“You wouldn’t expect to see anything like it in India,” her husband answered.  “And you won’t find many places like it in England.  I should like a look at the stables.”

He went out almost immediately and took the look in question, finding the result unexpectedly satisfactory.  Walderhurst had lent him a decent horse to ride, and there was a respectable little cart for Hester.  Palstrey Manor had “done them” very well.  This was a good deal more than he had expected.  He knew such hospitality would not have been shown him if he had come to England unmarried.  Consequently his good luck was partly a result of Hester’s existence in his life.  At the same time there awakened in him a consciousness that Hester would not have been likely to produce such results unless in combination with another element in the situation,—­the element of another woman who was sympathetic and had some power,—­the new Lady Walderhurst, in fact.