ents. "There," said
he to Randolph, "now take it back to the Temple; refer to Mr. Flotsam
as your acquaintance; and in a week or so you will hear of your
admission."

It was as the lawyer said. But the new student received the
announcement with feelings very different from those he had so long
cherished in his home by the sea.

CHAPTER VI.

"Yon bosky dingle still the rustics name;
'Twas there the blushing maid confessed her flame.
Down yon green lane they oft were seen to hie,
When evening slumbered on the western sky.
That blasted yew, that mouldering walnut bare,
Each bears mementos of the fated pair."

KIRKE WHITE.

Wilderness Gate was the most picturesque, although not the principal
entrance to the park of Pendarrel. The enclosing wall, formed of rough
gray stones, and coloured with mosses and ferns, there swept inwards
from the public road, leaving a space of turf, usually occupied by the
geese of the neighbouring cottagers. The gate was in the centre of the
recess, and opened on a long winding avenue of Scotch firs, the
branches of which met overhead, and made the path slippery with their
fallen spines. On either hand the eye might glance between their
straight stems to some open ground beyond, of uneven surface, mostly
covered with tall ferns, and chequered with birch-trees. A streamlet
might be heard, but not seen, rippling along not far from the walk.
Here and there the antlers of a stag would rise above the herbage, and
a hare or rabbit might be occasionally seen to bound across an exposed
plot of grass. The scene wore an air of neglect. The dead leaves were
not swept from the paths; the brambles extended their long shoots at
pleasure; the ruggedness of the ground was the work of nature. But the
avenue wound gently up an eminence; the wood on each side became
deeper, until, on arriving at the summit of a ridge, the visitor
emerged suddenly from the dark firs, and gazed down upon the trim
plantations and nicely-shorn lawns immediately surrounding the Hall.
The portion of the park through which he had passed was called the
Wilderness, and gave its name to the gate by which he entered.

Beside this gate, and close to the park-wall, was the lodge which Mrs.
Pendarrel assigned as a dwelling to Maud Basset and Michael Sinson.
They had previously resided at the farm-house occupied by the young
man's father, the brother-in-law of the hapl