No wonder that the little thing clung
to her convulsively, and would not let her hand go for the rest of
the day, every now and then moaning out entreaties to go home to
mammy.
With the sad little being hanging to her hand, Aurelia was led by Fay
round their new abiding place. The house was of brick, shaped like
the letter H, Dutch, and with a tall wing, at each end of the main
body, projecting, and finishing in fantastic gables edged with stone.
One of these square wings was appropriated to Aurelia and her charges,
the other to the recluse Mr. Belamour. The space that lay between
the two wings, on the garden front, was roofed over, and paved with
stone, descending in several broad shallow steps at the centre and
ends, guarded at each angle by huge carved eagles, the crest of the
builder, of the most regular patchwork, and kept, in spite of the
owner's non-residence, in perfect order. The strange thing was that
this fair and stately place, basking in the sunshine of early June,
should be left in complete solitude save for the hermit in the
opposite wing, the three children, and the girl, who felt as though
in a kind of prison.
The sun was too hot for Aurelia to go out of doors till late in the
day, when the shadow of the house came over the steps.
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