CHAPTER

I. A Watcher of lilies
II.  The lesson
III.  Gold, the incorruptible witness
IV.  Swarms of children
V. Of A fine man and some foolish women
VI.  The shadow of A shade
VII.  An old man digs A well
VIII.  They meet an author
IX.  Signed “Daniel Mortimer.”—­Canada
X. Causes and consequences
XI.  Wanted A desert island
XII.  Valentine
XIII.  Venerable ancientry
XIV.  Emily
XV.  The American guest
XVI.  Wearing the willow
XVII.  An easy dismissal
XVIII.  A morning call
XIX.  Mr. Mortimer goes through the turnpike
XX.  The river
XXI.  The dead father entreats
XXII.  Sophistry
XXIII.  Dante and others
XXIV.  Self-wonder and self-scorn
XXV.  That rainy Sunday
XXVI.  Mrs. Brandon asks A question
XVII.  The pleasures of memory
XXVIII.  Melcombe
XXIX.  Unheard-of liberties
XXX.  A chapter of troubles
XXXI.  A woman’s sympathy
XXII.  Mr. Brandon is made the subject of an
          honourable comparison
XXXIII.  The true ghost story
XXXIV.  Valentine and Laura
XXXV.  A visit to Melcombe
XXVI.  A private consultation
XXXVII.  His visitor

CHAPTER I.

A Watcher of lilies.

    “Unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no
    secrets are hid.”—­Collect, English Communion Service.

In one of the south-western counties of England, some years ago, and in a deep, well-wooded valley where men made perry and cider, wandered little and read less, there was a hamlet with neither farm nor cottage in it, that had not stood two hundred and fifty years, and just beyond there was a church nearly double that age, and there were the mighty wrecks of two great oak-trees, said to be more ancient still.

Between them, winding like a long red rut, went the narrow road, and was so deeply cut into the soil that a horseman passing down it could see nothing of its bordering fields; but about fifty yards from the first great oak the land suddenly dipped, and showed on the left a steep cup-like glen, choked with trees, and only divided from the road by a few dilapidated stakes and palings, and a wooden gate, orange with the rust of lichens, and held together with ropes and bands.