upon the street, but toward the west. Around its base the mortar was
crumbling away, revealing its mingled brick and stone foundation.
The hip-roof of weather-beaten shingles still remained, and was
surmounted by a wide-railed and wooden platform used by the occupants
of the dwelling for the drying of clothes, etc.

"It makes me think of an old, dying, moss-draped white oak standing
in the midst of trees of younger and different growth," said Mr.
Jocelyn, as he and Mildred scanned the gable-end of the house.

Then they entered by two or three stone steps a narrow passage,
ascended a forlorn wooden stairway, covered overhead by a few boards
nailed lengthwise, and so reached a small landing, where once had
been a stately porch or wide veranda, looking no doubt over a broad
sweep of lawn and the shining river. The high-arched doorway was
still intact, with elaborately carved but now defaced woodwork,
which, rising from the sill on either side, was continued in various
old-fashioned designs until it culminated over a large square window
in the second story. Generations had watched the sunsets from that
window, but now high brick walls threw it in shadow much of the
day.

A quaint brass knocker which gentlemen--long since dust--had
approached wearing laced three-cornered hats, velvet short-clothes,
and silver buckles, and upon which they had rapped announcement
of their social claims, still hung on the rest from which they had
lifted it. It was not often used at present, for people entered
without knocking, and the wide hall within was in a sense but
a continuation of the street; also the winding stairway, with its
ancient rail, which started out on one side and wound up to another