--local changes don't get talked
of far away. She is the owner of this castle and estate. My father sold
it when he was quite a young man, years before I was born, and not long
after his father's death. It was purchased by a man named Wilkins, a
rich man who became blind soon after he had bought it, and never lived
here; so it was left uncared for.'

She went out upon the terrace; and without exactly knowing why, Somerset
followed.

'Your friend--'

'Has only come here quite recently. She is away from home to-day.... It
was very sad,' murmured the young girl thoughtfully. 'No sooner had
Mr. Power bought it of the representatives of Mr. Wilkins--almost
immediately indeed--than he died from a chill caught after a warm bath.
On account of that she did not take possession for several months; and
even now she has only had a few rooms prepared as a temporary residence
till she can think what to do. Poor thing, it is sad to be left alone!'

Somerset heedfully remarked that he thought he recognized that name
Power, as one he had seen lately, somewhere or other.

'Perhaps you have been hearing of her father. Do you know what he was?'

Somerset did not.

She looked across the distant country, where undulations of dark-green
foliage formed a prospect extending for miles. And as she watched, and
Somerset's eyes, led by hers, watched also, a white streak of steam,
thin as a cotton thread, could be discerned ploughing that green
expanse. 'Her father made THAT,' Miss De Stancy said, directing her
finger towards the object.

'That what?'

'That railway. He was Mr. John Power, the great railway contractor. And
it was through making the railway that he discovered this castle--the
railway was diverted a little on its account.'

'A clash between ancient and modern.'

'Yes, but he took an interest in the locality long before he purchased
the estate. And he built the people a chapel on a bit of freehold he
bought for them. He was a great Nonconformist, a staunch Baptist up to
the day of his death--a much stauncher one,' she said significantly,
'than his daughter is.'

'Ah, I begin to spot her!'

'You have heard about the baptism?'

'I know something of it.'

'Her conduct has given mortal offence to the scattered people of the
denomination that her father was at such pains to unite into a body.'

Somerset could guess the remainder, and in thinking over the
circumstances did not state what he had seen. She added, as if
di