RELATING HOW THE GENTLEMEN SAT OVER THEIR CLARET, AND HOW DR.

STURK SAW A FACE.
Puddock drove up the avenue of gentlemanlike old poplars, and over the little bridge, and under the high-arched bowers of elms, walled up at either side with evergreens, and so into the court-yard of Belmont.
Three sides of a parellelogram, the white old house being the largest, and offices white and in keeping, but overgrown with ivy, and opening to yards of their own on the other sides, facing one another at the flanks, and in front a straight Dutch-like moat, with a stone balustrade running all along from the garden to the bridge, with great stone flower pots set at intervals, the shrubs and flowers of which associated themselves in his thoughts with beautiful Gertrude Chattesworth, and so were wonderfully bright and fragrant.

And there were two swans upon the water, and several peacocks marching dandily in the court-yard; and a grand old Irish dog, with a great collar, and a Celtic inscription, dreaming on the steps in the evening sun.
It was always pleasant to dine at Belmont.

Old General Chattesworth was so genuinely hospitable and so really glad to see you, and so hilarious himself, and so enjoying.

A sage or a scholar, perhaps, might not have found a great deal in him.