She had all sorts of reminiscences of my grandfather and grandmother and of the great days in the house; but I noticed that once when she mentioned Uncle Luke's name she coughed to cover her mistake, and looked oddly from Captain Cardew to me as though she wondered at finding us together.
And then we were taken down to the drawing-room which opened on the right-hand side of the hall; and she would take off the covers of the old French furniture to show us the beautiful old chintzes with which they were upholstered.

Also she would have us admire the Italian mantelpieces inlaid with coloured marble, and the decoration of the walls and ceilings which were very fine indeed, and the picture by Angelica Kauffmann of the Lady St.Leger of that day as St.Cecilia playing on her organ, and the other beautiful things which the rooms contained.

All the time she sighed over the years during which the house had been closed up.
"Sure, it's time it was all forgotten," she said, "and that his Lordship and her Ladyship came back to where many a one would welcome them.

It was fine, Miss Bawn, when the wax lights were lit in all the chandeliers and the flashing of them was nearly as fine as the ladies' diamonds.
There used to be the height of fashion and beauty here but never one that I'd compare to her Ladyship.

Ah, sure, they were great days!" "And who knows but they may come again ?" said Anthony Cardew.
We were in the inner drawing-room by this time, and as it happened there was a picture of Theobald as a little boy sitting on his pony, above the fireplace.
A memory came back to me, out of the mists of childhood, of Theobald sitting astride the little shaggy pony.