Beyond, were covered walks, affording a shelter from the sultry noontide sun; shrubberies and labyrinths of many turnings and windings, so suggestive of secret meetings, were secret meetings desirable; groves of scented shrubs exhaling their perfume; cascades and rippling fountains; mossy dells, concealing the sweet primrose, the sweeter violet; and verdant, sunny spots open to the country round, to the charming distant scenery.

These open spots had their benches, where you might sit and feast the eyes through the live-long summer day.
It was not summer yet--scarcely spring--and the sun, I say, was drawing to its setting, lighting up the large clear panes of the windows as with burnished gold.

The house, the ornamental grounds, the estate around, all belonged to Mr.Verner.It had come to him by bequest, not by entailed inheritance.

Busybodies were fond of saying that it never ought to have been his; that, if the strict law of right and justice had been observed, it would have gone to his elder brother; or, rather, to that elder brother's son.

Old Mr.Verner, the father of these two brothers, had been a modest country gentleman, until one morning when he awoke to the news that valuable mines had been discovered on his land.