!" he said, almost convulsively. "My best own, truest
darling!" and Mary, looking up into his face, saw that big tears were
running down his cheeks.

But still he told her nothing that night.

CHAPTER XV

Courcy

When Frank Gresham expressed to his father an opinion that Courcy
Castle was dull, the squire, as may be remembered, did not pretend to
differ from him. To men such as the squire, and such as the squire's
son, Courcy Castle was dull. To what class of men it would not be
dull the author is not prepared to say; but it may be presumed that
the de Courcys found it to their liking, or they would have made it
other than it was.

The castle itself was a huge brick pile, built in the days of William
III, which, though they were grand for days of the construction of
the Constitution, were not very grand for architecture of a more
material description. It had, no doubt, a perfect right to be called
a castle, as it was entered by a castle-gate which led into a court,
the porter's lodge for which was built as it were into the wall;
there were attached to it also two round, stumpy adjuncts, which
were, perhaps properly, called towers, though they did not do much in
the way of towering; and, moreover, along one side of the house, over
what would otherwise have been the cornice, there ran a castellated
parapet, through the assistance of which, the imagination no doubt
was intended to supply the muzzles of defiant artillery. But any
artillery which would have so presented its muzzle must have been
very small, and it may be doubted whether even a bowman could have
obtained shelter there.

The grounds about the castle were not very inviting, nor, as grounds,
very extensive; though, no doubt, the entire domain was such as
suited the importance of so puissant a nobleman as Earl de Courcy.
What, indeed, should have been the park was divided out into various
large paddocks. The surface was flat and unbroken; and though
there were magnificent elm-trees standing in straight lines, like
hedgerows, the timber had not that beautiful, wild, scattered look
which generally gives the great charm to English scenery.

The town of Courcy--for the place claimed to rank as a town--was
in many particulars like the castle. It was built of dingy-red
brick--almost more brown than red--and was solid, dull-looking, ugly
and comfortable. It consisted of four streets, which were formed by
two roads crossing each other, making at the poi