A low stone wall bordered a pleasance, but the garden had fallen out of order, and a dial-stone lay flat on the earth.
My first thought was that the place was tenantless, till I caught sight of a thin spire of smoke struggling against the downpour.

I hoped to come on some gardener or groom from whom I could seek direction, so I skirted the pleasance to find the kitchen door.

A glow of fire in one of the rooms cried welcome to my shivering bones, and on the far side of the house I found signs of better care.

The rank grasses had been mown to make a walk, and in a corner flourished a little group of pot-herbs.

But there was no man to be seen, and I was about to retreat and try the farm-town, when out of the doorway stepped a girl.
She was maybe sixteen years old, tall and well-grown, but of her face I could see little, since she was all muffled in a great horseman's cloak.