garden is small but extremely pretty and wild, and the kitchen is very
convenient; really I quite wonder how the people who built it could have
made it all so comfortable. You see there are one--two--the pantry, the
kitchen and two rooms on the ground floor and plenty of room upstairs for
everybody, and as for the sun! it streams into all the windows at once
from morning till night. And such a pretty view, too, of that old gate
opposite--where does it lead to, Mrs. Ambrose? It is so very pretty."

"It leads to the park and the Hall," answered Mrs. Ambrose.

"Oh--" Mrs. Goddard's tone changed. "But nobody lives there?" she asked
suddenly.

"Oh no--it is in Chancery, you know."

"What--what is that, exactly?" asked Mrs. Goddard, timidly. "Is there a
young heir waiting to grow up--I mean waiting to take possession?"

"No. There is a suit about it. It has been going on for forty years my
husband says, and they cannot decide to whom it belongs."

"I see," answered Mrs. Goddard. "I suppose they will never decide now."

"Probably not for some time."

"It must be a very pretty place. Can one go in, do you think? I am so
fond of trees--what a beautiful garden you have yourself, Mrs. Ambrose."

"Would you like to see it?" asked the vicar's wife, anxious to bring the
visit to a conclusion.