_September_ 20, 1894.





THE PEOPLE OF THE MIST



CHAPTER I

THE SINS OF THE FATHER ARE VISITED ON THE CHILDREN

The January afternoon was passing into night, the air was cold and
still, so still that not a single twig of the naked beech-trees stirred;
on the grass of the meadows lay a thin white rime, half frost, half
snow; the firs stood out blackly against a steel-hued sky, and over the
tallest of them hung a single star. Past these bordering firs there ran
a road, on which, in this evening of the opening of our story, a young
man stood irresolute, glancing now to the right and now to the left.

To his right were two stately gates of iron fantastically wrought,
supported by stone pillars on whose summits stood griffins of black
marble embracing coats of arms, and banners inscribed with the device
_Per ardua ad astra_. Beyond these gates ran a broad carriage drive,
lined on either side by a double row of such oaks as England alone can
produce under the most favourable circumstances of soil, aided by the
nurturing hand of man and three or four centuries of time.