. There was a pleasant, old-world look about the place which was
oddly charming; and Toni was quite sorry when the car left the little
green behind. But in another minute they were on a stretch of white road
bordered by a high wall, behind which tall trees stood like sentinels;
and Toni caught her breath as Owen said, in a voice which he tried,
vainly, to keep steady:

"See, there's Greenriver--my home--beyond the trees."

They had reached the high gates in the wall, and when once they had
entered and were rolling up the broad avenue Toni gazed eagerly in the
direction he had indicated.

Greenriver was a stately old place enough. It had been built in the days
of Queen Bess; and was just such a house as that in which Justice
Shallow might have entertained Falstaff--a long grey building with a
porch in the centre and a huge gable at either end--a house with
deep-mullioned windows and large stacks of chimney-pots.

The house faced the river, to which it led by a terrace of velvety turf,
broken here and there by gay flower-beds; while the real gardens lay at
the other side of the building. Here beauty and dignity had joined
hands, as it were, to preserve the stately loveliness of the grounds,
under whose tall elms many a joyous company must have roamed when the
river was the highway of elegance and fashion, and great barges floated
down the Thames bearing Royal personages reclining on their couches
covered with cloth of gold. Here on summer evenings the nightingales
sang to the roses for which the gardens were famous; and for centuries
the big white owls had hooted from their nests in the tree-tops, or
flown, like pale ghosts, across the dusky paths.

The grounds were indeed noted all along the river for the magnificence
of their green, velvety lawns, the size and beauty of the flowers in
parterre and bed, the wonderful completeness--and in some cases the
antiquity--of the contents of the famous herbaceous border; and Toni
never forgot the sensation of awe which overwhelmed her as she realized
that this glorious place belonged to the man beside her.

She spoke a little shyly as the car came to a standstill at the foot of
the steps leading to the big door.

"This is your house?"

"Yes, this is Greenriver." He helped her out of the car. "And here is my
old friend Mrs. Blades coming to meet us."

An elderly, rather prim-looking woman came forward as Owen advanced, and
in her eyes shone a welcoming light.

"Come in,