That the grounds immediately appertaining to the house were not intended as usual for the purposes of a farm or kitchen-garden was evident.

The reason became equally apparent when, looking towards the north, where no wall bounded them, I saw--over a gate in the middle of a dense hedge of flowering shrubs, which, with a ditch beyond it, formed the limit of the park in that direction--an extensive farm divided by the usual ditches into some twenty-five or thirty distinct fields, and more than a square mile in extent.

This, as Eunane's native inquisitiveness and quickness had already learnt, formed part of the estate attached to the mansion and bestowed upon me by the Campta.

It was admirably cultivated, containing orchards, fields rich with various thriving crops, and pastures grazed by the Unicorn and other of the domestic birds and beasts kept to supply Martial tables with milk, eggs, and meat; producing nearly every commodity to which the climate was suited, and, as a very short observation assured me, capable of yielding a far greater income than would suffice to sustain in luxury and splendour a household larger than that enforced upon me.

We walked in this direction, my companion talking fluently enough when once I had set her at ease, and seemingly free from the shyness and timidity which Eveena had at first displayed.