"It cannot much matter to him whether it is early or late for the orchids.

But you will come on, will you not, and see Merripit House ?" A short walk brought us to it, a bleak moorland house, once the farm of some grazier in the old prosperous days, but now put into repair and turned into a modern dwelling.

An orchard surrounded it, but the trees, as is usual upon the moor, were stunted and nipped, and the effect of the whole place was mean and melancholy.

We were admitted by a strange, wizened, rusty-coated old manservant, who seemed in keeping with the house.

Inside, however, there were large rooms furnished with an elegance in which I seemed to recognize the taste of the lady.