gently along, passing the house, and coming up gradually to
the same level; then making a turn we drove at a better pace
back under some of those great evergreen oaks, till we drew up
at the house door. This was at a corner of the building, which
stretched in a long, low line towards the river. A verandah
skirted all that long front. As soon as I was out of the
carriage I ran to the furthest end. I found the verandah
turned the corner; the lawn too. All along the front, it
sloped to the dell; at the end of the house, it sloped more
gently and to greater distance down to the banks of the river.
I could not see the river itself. The view of the dell at my
left hand was lovely. A little stream which ran in the bottom
had been coaxed to form a clear pool in an open spot, where
the sunlight fell upon it, surrounded by a soft wilderness of
trees and climbers. Sweet branches of jessamine waved there in
their season; and a beautiful magnolia had been planted or
cherished there, and carefully kept in view of the house
windows. But the wide lawns, on one side and on the other,
grew nothing but the oaks; the gentle slope was a playground
for sunshine and shadow, as I first saw it; for then the
shadows of the oaks were lengthening over the grass, and the
waving grey wreaths of moss served sometimes as a foil,
sometimes as an her, to the sunbeams. I stood in a trance of
joy and sorrow; they were fighting so hard for the mastery;
till I knew that my aunt and Miss Pinshon had come up behind
me.

"This is a proud place!" my governess remarked.

I believe I looked at her. My aunt laughed; said she must not