prayer in his heart, half of gratitude and half of hope.

He rode up to the front of the house, and saw at once that it was
sadly neglected; the grass grew among the paving-stones, and several
of the windows were broken. He knocked at the door, and an old
serving-man came out, who made an obeisance. Walter sent his horse to
the stable; his baggage was already come; and his first task was to
visit his new home from room to room. It was a very beautiful solidly
built house, finely panelled in old dry wood, and had an abundance of
solid oak furniture; there were dark pictures here and there; and that
night Walter sate alone at his meat, which was carefully served him by
the old serving-man, his head full of pleasant plans for his new life;
he slept in the great bedroom, and many times woke wondering where he
was; once he crept to the window, and saw the barns, gardens, and
orchards lie beneath, and the shadowy woods beyond, all bathed in a
cold clear moonlight.

In the morning when he had breakfasted, the lawyer who had charge of
his business rode in from the little town hard by to see him; and when
Walter's happiness was a little dashed; for though the estate brought
in a fair sum, yet it was crippled by a mortgage which lay upon it;
and Walter saw that he would have to live sparely for some years
before he could have his estate unembarrassed; but this troubled him
little, for he was used to a simple life. The lawyer indeed had
advised him to sell a little of the land; but Walter was very proud of
the old estate, and of the memory that he was the tenth Wyatt that had
dwelt there, and he said that before he did that he would wait awhile
and see if he could not arrange otherwise. When the lawyer was gone
there came in the bailiff, and Walter went with him all over the
estate. The garden was greatly overgrown with weeds, and the yew
hedges were sprawling all uncut; they went through the byre, where the
cattle stood in the straw; they visited the stable and the barn, the
granary and the dovecote; and Walter spoke pleasantly with the men
that served him; then he went to the ploughland and the pastures, the
orchard and the woodland; and it pleased Walter to walk in the
woodpaths, among the copse and under great branching oaks, and to feel
that it was all his own.

At last they came out on the brow of the hill, and saw Restlands lie
beneath them, with the smoke of a chimney going up into the quiet air,
and the doves wheelin