They went along one or two zig-zag damp-smelling stone passages, and then entered the house-place, or common sitting-room for a farmer’s family in that part of the country.  The front door opened into it, and several other apartments issued out of it, such as the dairy, the state bedroom (which was half-parlour as well), and a small room which had been appropriated to the late Mrs. Hilton, where she sat, or more frequently lay, commanding through the open door the comings and goings of her household.  In those days the house-place had been a cheerful room, full of life, with the passing to and fro of husband, child, and servants; with a great merry wood-fire crackling and blazing away every evening, and hardly let out in the very heat of summer; for with the thick stone walls, and the deep window-seats, and the drapery of vine-leaves and ivy, that room, with its flag-floor, seemed always to want the sparkle and cheery warmth of a fire.  But now the green shadows from without seemed to have become black in the uninhabited desolation.  The oaken shovel-board, the heavy dresser, and the carved cupboards, were now dull and damp, which were formerly polished up to the brightness of a looking-glass where the fire-blaze was for ever glinting; they only added to the oppressive gloom; the flag-floor was wet with heavy moisture.  Ruth stood gazing into the room, seeing nothing of what was present.  She saw a vision of former days—­an evening in the days of her childhood; her father sitting in the “master’s corner” near the fire, sedately smoking his pipe, while he dreamily watched his wife and child; her mother reading to her, as she sat on a little stool at her feet.  It was gone—­all gone into the land of shadows; but for the moment it seemed so present in the old room, that Ruth believed her actual life to be the dream.  Then, ’still silent, she went on into her mother’s parlour.  But there, the bleak look of what had once been full of peace and mother’s love, struck cold on her heart.  She uttered a cry, and threw herself down by the sofa, hiding her face in her hands, while her frame quivered with her repressed sobs.

“Dearest Ruth, don’t give way so.  It can do no good; it cannot bring back the dead,” said Mr. Bellingham, distressed at witnessing her distress.

“I know it cannot,” murmured Ruth; “and that is why I cry.  I cry because nothing will ever bring them back again.”  She sobbed afresh, but more gently, for his kind words soothed her, and softened, if they could not take away, her sense of desolation.

“Come away; I cannot have you stay here, full of painful associations as these rooms must be.  Come”—­raising her with gentle violence—­“show me your little garden you have often told me about.  Near the window of this very room, is it not?  See how well I remember everything you tell me.”

He led her round through the back part of the house into the pretty old-fashioned garden.  There was a sunny border just under the windows, and clipped box and yew-trees by the grass-plat, further away from the house; and she prattled again of her childish adventures and solitary plays.  When they turned round they saw the old man, who had hobbled out with the help of his stick, and was looking at them with the same grave, sad look of anxiety.  Mr. Bellingham spoke rather sharply—­