CHAPTER I.
BY THE EARLY TRAIN.
The ascending sun threw its slanting rays abroad on a glorious August morning, and the little world below began to awaken into life--the life of another day of sanguine pleasure or of fretting care.
Not on many fairer scenes did those sunbeams shed their radiance than on one existing in the heart of England; but almost any landscape will look beautiful in the early light of a summer's morning.

The county, one of the midlands, was justly celebrated for its scenery; its rich woods and smiling plains, its river and gentler streams.

The harvest was nearly gathered in--it had been a late season--but a few fields of golden grain, in process of reaping, gave their warm tints to the landscape.

In no part of the country had the beauties of nature been bestowed more lavishly than on this, the village of Calne, situated about seven miles from the county town.
It was an aristocratic village, on the whole.

The fine seat of the Earl of Hartledon, rising near it, had caused a few families of note to settle there, and the nest of white villas gave the place a prosperous and picturesque appearance.