me
portraits, and agreeable landscapes, and cloud-clapped castles, each for
her private contemplation, on the spreading canvas of her hopes.

Dr. Walsingham rode down to the 'Tiled House,' where workmen were
already preparing to make things a little more comfortable. The towering
hall-door stood half open; and down the broad stairs--his tall, slim
figure, showing black against the light of the discoloured
lobby-window--his raven hair reaching to his shoulders--Mervyn, the
pale, large-eyed genius of that haunted place, came to meet him. He led
him into the cedar parlour, the stained and dusty windows of which
opened upon that moss-grown orchard, among whose great trunks and arches
those strange shapes were said sometimes to have walked at night, like
penitents and mourners through cathedral pillars.

It was a reception as stately, but as sombre and as beggarly withal as
that of the Master of Ravenswood, for there were but two chairs in the
cedar-parlour,--one with but three legs, the other without a bottom; so
they were fain to stand. But Mervyn could smile without bitterness and
his desolation had not the sting of actual poverty, as he begged the
rector to excuse his dreary welcome, and hoped that he would find things
better the next time.

Their little colloquy got on very easily, for Mervyn liked the rector,
and felt a confidence in him which was comfortable and almost
exhilarating. The doctor had a cheery, kindly, robust voice, and a good,
honest emphasis in his talk; a guileless blue eye; a face furrowed,
thoughtful, and benevolent; well formed too. He must have been a
handsome curate in his day. Not uncourtly, but honest; the politeness of
a gentle and tender heart; _very_ courteous and popular among ladies,
although he sometimes forgot that they knew no Latin.

So Mervyn drew nigh to him in spirit, and liked him and talked to him
rather more freely [though even that was enigmatically enough] than he
had done to anybody else for a long time. It would seem that the young
man had formed no very distinct plan of life. He appeared to have some
thought of volunteering to serve in America, and some of entering into a
foreign service; but his plans were, I suppose, _in nubibus_. All that
was plain was that he was restless and eager for some change--any.

It was not a very long visit, you may suppose; and just as Dr.
Walsingham rode out of the avenue, Lord Castlemallard was riding
leisurely by towards Chapelizod, foll