home and at ease, which communicated itself to me, so that I felt
that the beautiful old place was mine in the best sense of the word;
and my pleasure of past days seemed to add itself to that of to-day,
and filled my whole soul with content.

Dick (who, in spite of Clara's gibe, knew the place very well) told
me that the beautiful old Tudor rooms, which I remembered had been
the dwellings of the lesser fry of Court flunkies, were now much used
by people coming and going; for, beautiful as architecture had now
become, and although the whole face of the country had quite
recovered its beauty, there was still a sort of tradition of pleasure
and beauty which clung to that group of buildings, and people thought
going to Hampton Court a necessary summer outing, as they did in the
days when London was so grimy and miserable. We went into some of
the rooms looking into the old garden, and were well received by the
people in them, who got speedily into talk with us, and looked with
politely half-concealed wonder at my strange face. Besides these
birds of passage, and a few regular dwellers in the place, we saw out
in the meadows near the garden, down "the Long Water," as it used to
be called, many gay tents with men, women, and children round about
them. As it seemed, this pleasure-loving people were fond of tent-
life, with all its inconveniences, which, indeed, they turned into
pleasure also.

We left this old friend by the time appointed, and I made some feeble
show of taking the sculls; but Dick repulsed me, not much to my
grief, I must say, as I found I had quite enough to do between the
enjoyment of the beautiful time and my own lazily blended thoughts.

As to Dick, it was quite right to let him pull, for he was as strong