When the arch was passed, one felt at once that one was in the town of a former day.

The pavement was narrow and rugged; the shops small, their upper stories projecting, with here and there plastered fronts, quaintly arabesque.
An ascent, short, but steep and tortuous, conducted at once to the old Abbey Church, nobly situated in a vast quadrangle, round which were the genteel and gloomy dwellings of the Areopagites of the Hill.

More genteel and less gloomy than the rest--lights at the windows and flowers on the balcony--stood forth, flanked by a garden wall at either side, the mansion of Mrs.Colonel Poyntz.
As I entered the drawing-room, I heard the voice of the hostess; it was a voice clear, decided, metallic, bell-like, uttering these words: "Taken Abbots' House?
I will tell you.".