* * * * *

“Well, to begin my true tale.  We wished for a complete change of scene last February, and Angela thought she would like to reside in the same county as her sisters and cousins and aunts—­”

“Dorsetshire, I believe, Mrs. Henniker?” interrupted the lady of the house.

Angela nodded.

“I intended to take a house for my family, leave them comfortably settled in it, and run backwards and forwards between Dorsetshire and Dublin.  Well, it so happened that I did leave them for a single day during the three months of my tenancy of the Hall.  I had seen a wonderful advertisement of a spacious dwelling-house, with offices, gardens, pleasure grounds—­to be had for fifty pounds per annum.  I went to the agent to make inquiries.

“‘Is this flourishing advertisement correct?’ asked I.

“‘Perfectly.’

“‘What! so many advantages are to be had for fifty pounds a year?’

“‘Most certainly.  I advise you to go and see for yourself.’

“I took the agent’s advice, and Angela was enchanted with the description I was able to give her on my return.  A charming little park, beautifully planted with rare shrubs and trees—­a bowery, secluded spot, so shut in by noble elms as to seem remote from the world.  The house—­such a mansion as in Ireland would be called Manor-house or Castle—­large, lofty rooms thoroughly furnished, every modern improvement.  My wife, as surprised as myself that a place of the kind should be going for a mere song, begged me to see the agent again, and close with him.  It was done at once.  I would have taken the Hall for a year, but Mr. Harold advised me not to do so.  ’Take it by the quarter, or at longest by the half-year,’ he recommended.

“I replied that it appeared such a desirable bargain that I wished to take it by the year.  His answer to this was a reiteration of his first advice.  I can’t tell you how he influenced me, for he really said no more than I tell you; but I yielded to his evident wish without knowing why I did so, and I closed with him for six months, not a year.”

“Glamour, Mr. Henniker!”

“It would seem so, Mrs. Marchmont.  We went to the Hall, and Angela was delighted with it.  The snowdrops lay in snowy masses about the grounds—­the garden gave promise of beauty as the season advanced.  How the children ran over the house! how charmed we were with every nook and corner of it!  Our own bed-room was a comfortable, large room, opening into a very roomy dressing-room, in which my wife placed two cribs for our youngest boys, Hal and Jack—­”

“Don’t forget to say that our bed-chamber opened from a sitting-room,” interrupted Mrs. Henniker.

“Well, for three weeks we all slept the sleep of the just in our really splendid suite of apartments.  Not a grumble from our servants—­nothing but satisfaction with our rare bargain.  I was on the eve of returning to dear, dirty Dublin and the Four Courts, when—­”