"I know you are tired by the ride.

Besides," he added, with pride, "I want to show you Tallwoods." Scarce touching his hand, she stepped down.

Dunwody motioned to the driver to advance, and in spite of the protests of the maid Jeanne, thus left alone within, the coach rolled on up the driveway ahead of them.
It was in fact a beautiful prospect which lay before the travelers thus arrived.

The sun was low in the west, approaching the rim of the hills, and its level rays lighted the autumn foliage, crossed the great trees, brightened the tall white pillars.

It even illuminated the grounds beyond, so that quite through the body of the house itself its golden light could be seen on the farther slopes, framing the quaint and singular picture thus set apart.
All around rose the wide cup of the valley, its sides as yet covered by unbroken decoration of vivid or parti-colored foliage.
Here and there the vivid reds of the wild sumac broke out in riot; framed lower in the scale were patches of berry vines touched by the frost; while now and again a maple lifted aloft a fan of clean scarlet against the sky,--all backed by the more somber colors of the oaks and elms, or the now almost naked branches of the lindens.
These enfolding forests gave a look of protectedness to this secret place.