therefore allowed to remain unmolested and unadorned; unless when an
occasional visit from some member of the Greville family demanded an
addition to its rude attempts of splendour and elegance.
But it was difficult to convey the new tangled luxuries of the
capital to this remote spot; and the tapestry, whose faded hues and
moulding texture betrayed the influence of the sea air, had not yet
given plan to richer hangings. The suite of state apartments as
cold and comfortless in the extreme, but one of the chambers had
been recently decorated with more than usual cost, on the
arrival of Lord and Lady Greville, the latter of whom had never
before visited her Northern abode. Its dimensions, which were
somewhat less vast than those of the rest of the suite, rendered it
fitter for modern habits of life; and it had long ensured the
preference of the ladies of the House of Greville, and obtained the
name of "the lady's chamber," by which it is even to this day
distinguished. The walls were not incumbered by the portraits of
those grim ancestors who frowned in mail, or smiled in fardingale on
the walls of the adjacent galleries. The huge chimney had suffered
some inhospitable contraction, and was surmounted with marble; and
huge settees, glittering with gilding and satin, which in their turn
would now be displaced by the hand of Gillow or Oakley, had
dispossessed the tall straight backed-chairs, which in the olden
times must have inflicted martyrdom on the persons of our weary
forefathers.

The present visit of Lord Greville to the Cross, was supposed to
originate in the dangerous illness of an old and favourite female
servant, who had held undisturbed control over the household since
the death of the first Lady Greville about ten years before. She had
been from her infancy attached to the family service, and having