The neighborhood afforded shooting, fishing, and hunting, if not the best of their kind, yet good enough to satisfy reasonable people.

The park was large and well wooded; the house had insisted on remaining picturesque in spite of Mr.Lane's improvements, and by virtue of an indelible stamp of antiquity had carried its point.
A house that dates from Elizabeth is not to be entirely put to shame by one or two unblushing French windows and other trifling barbarities of that description, more especially when it is kept in countenance by a little church of still greater age, nestling under its wing in a manner that recalled the good old days when the lord of the manor was lord of the souls and bodies of his tenants.

Even old Mr.Lane had been mellowed by the influence of his new home, and before his death had come to play the part of Squire far more respectably than might be imagined.

Eugene sustained the _role_ with the graceful indolence and careless efficiency that marked most of his doings.
He stood one Saturday morning in the latter part of July on the steps that led from the terrace to the lawn, holding a letter in his hand and softly whistling.

In appearance he was not, it must be admitted, an ideal Squire, for he was but a trifle above middle height, rather slight, and with the little stoop that tells of the man who is town-bred and by nature more given to indoor than outdoor exercises; but he was a good-looking fellow for all that, with a bright humorous face,--though at this moment rather a bored one,--large eyes set well apart, and his proper allowance of brown hair and white teeth.