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some caprice he abandoned the place before the walls had begun to rise, and returned to England; but the garden was still kept up, and jealously guarded from all intrusion, by the owner’s strict orders. There was consequently a slight, but fascinating halo of mystery around the place, and a piquant difference of opinion with regard to its attractions; those who had seen it (by some special favour) lauding it as a second enchanted palace of the Sleeping Beauty; while the majority (who had been refused permission) declared it without hesitation to be nothing more than an overgrown wilderness of flowering shrubs and neglected trees. Campbell had made some acquaintance with the town agent of its eccentric owner, and had gained permission to visit it; it was a pleasant little pilgrimage for a summer afternoon.

The two riders left the shore, and went along a bridle-track which led them by many turns, and returns, and grassy circuits, deep into the heart and secrets of the thick wooded coast ranges. The low rolling hills were all covered with primeval forest, moulded by the prevailing winds into a dense evergreen thatch, that sloped away from the coast towards the peaks, and followed the contour of the land as closely as a wet cloth covers a sculptor’s clay model. The