He
had been down this lane before to-night, and knew that it was one of the
prettiest walks about Lidford; so there was scarcely anything strange in
the fact that he should choose this promenade for his evening saunter.
The rustic way, wide enough for a wagon, and with sloping grassy banks,
and tall straggling hedges, full of dog-roses and honeysuckle, led
towards a river--a fair winding stream, which was one of the glories of
Lidford. A little before one came to the river, the lane opened upon a
green, where there was a mill, and a miller's cottage, a rustic inn, and
two or three other houses of more genteel pretensions.
Gilbert Fenton wondered which of these was the habitation of Captain
Sedgewick, concluding that the half-pay officer and his niece must needs
live in one of them. He reconnoitred them as he went by the low
garden-fences, over which he could see the pretty lawns and flower-beds,
with clusters of evergreens here and there, and a wealth of roses and
seringa. One of them, the prettiest and most secluded, was also the
smallest; a low white-walled cottage, with casement windows above, and
old-fashioned bow-windows below, and a porch overgrown with roses. The
house lay back a little way from the green; and there was a tiny brook
running beside the holly hedge that bounded the garden, spanned by a
little rustic bridge before the gate.
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