They were nearing the house through a long avenue of chestnuts whose variegated leaves were already beginning to strew the ground beneath, and they could see the vista open upon the mullioned windows of the Priory, lighted up by the yellow October sunshine.  In that sunshine stood a tall, clean-limbed young fellow, dressed in a shooting-suit, whom the consul recognized at once as Lord Algernon, the son of his companion.  As if to accent the graces of this vision of youth and vigor, near him, in the shadow, an old man had halted, hat in hand, still holding the rake with which he had been gathering the dead leaves in the avenue; his back bent, partly with years, partly with the obeisance of a servitor.  There was something so marked in this contrast, in this old man standing in the shadow of the fading year, himself as dried and withered as the leaves he was raking, yet pausing to make his reverence to this passing sunshine of youth and prosperity in the presence of his coming master, that the consul, as they swept by, looked after him with a stirring of pain.

“Rather an old man to be still at work,” said the consul.

Beverdale laughed.  “You must not let him hear you say so; he considers himself quite as fit as any younger man in the place, and, by Jove! though he’s nearly eighty, I’m inclined to believe it.  He’s not one of our people, however; he comes from the village, and is taken on at odd times, partly to please himself.  His great aim is to be independent of his children,—­he has a granddaughter who is one of the maids at the Priory,—­and to keep himself out of the workhouse.  He does not come from these parts—­somewhere farther north, I fancy.  But he’s a tough lot, and has a deal of work in him yet.”

“Seems to be going a bit stale lately,” said Lord Algernon, “and I think is getting a little queer in his head.  He has a trick of stopping and staring straight ahead, at times, when he seems to go off for a minute or two.  There!” continued the young man, with a light laugh.  “I say! he’s doing it now!” They both turned quickly and gazed at the bent figure—­not fifty yards away—­standing in exactly the same attitude as before.  But, even as they gazed, he slowly lifted his rake and began his monotonous work again.

At Scrooby Priory, the consul found that the fame of his fair countrywoman had indeed preceded her, and that the other guests were quite as anxious to see Miss Desborough as he was.  One of them had already met her in London; another knew her as one of the house party at the Duke of Northforeland’s, where she had been a central figure.  Some of her naive sallies and frank criticisms were repeated with great unction by the gentlemen, and with some slight trepidation and a “fearful joy” by the ladies.  He was more than ever convinced that mother and daughter had forgotten their lineal Desboroughs, and he resolved to leave any allusion to it to the young lady herself.

She, however, availed herself of that privilege the evening after her arrival.  “Who’d have thought of meeting you here?” she said, sweeping her skirts away to make room for him on a sofa.  “It’s a coon’s age since I saw you—­not since you gave us that letter to those genealogical gentlemen in London.”