CHAPTER V.

VISITORS FROM THE HALL.





When I came near my own gate, I saw that it was open; and when I
came in sight of my own door, I found a carriage standing before it,
and a footman ringing the bell. It was an old-fashioned carriage,
with two white horses in it, yet whiter by age than by nature. They
looked as if no coachman could get more than three miles an hour out
of them, they were so fat and knuckle-kneed. But my attention could
not rest long on the horses, and I reached the door just as my
housekeeper was pronouncing me absent. There were two ladies in the
carriage, one old and one young.

"Ah, here is Mr. Walton!" said the old lady, in a serene voice, with
a clear hardness in its tone; and I held out my hand to aid her
descent. She had pulled off her glove to get a card out of her
card-case, and so put the tips of two old fingers, worn very smooth,
as if polished with feeling what things were like, upon the palm of
my hand. I then offered my hand to her companion, a girl apparently
about fourteen, who took a hearty hold of it, and jumped down beside
her with a smile. As I followed them into the house, I took their
card from the housekeeper's hand, and read, Mrs Oldcastle and Miss
Gladwyn.