The front door was locked, so he rang the bell.

It was answered by a new servant, rather a forbidding, middle-aged woman with a limp, who informed him that Mr.
Knight was out, and notwithstanding his explanations, declined to admit him into the house.

Doubtless she thought that a young man, wearing a foreign-looking hat and carrying such a strange long stick, must be a thief, or worse.

The end of it was that she slammed the door in his face and shot the old-fashioned bolts.
Then Godfrey bethought him of the other door, that which led into the ancient refectory, which was now used as a schoolroom.

This was open, so he went in and, being tired after his long journey, sat himself down in the chair at the end of the old oak table, that same chair in which Isobel had kissed him when he was a little boy.