Chapter 4
The village clock struck five as Mr. Millbank and his guest entered the gardens of his mansion. Coningsby lingered a moment to admire the beauty and gay profusion of the flowers.
'Your situation,' said Coningsby, looking up the green and silent valley, 'is absolutely poetic.'
'I try sometimes to fancy,' said Mr. Millbank, with a rather fierce smile, 'that I am in the New World.'
They entered the house; a capacious and classic hall, at the end a staircase in the Italian fashion. As they approached it, the sweetest and the clearest voice exclaimed from above, 'Papa! papa!' and instantly a young girl came bounding down the stairs, but suddenly seeing a stranger with her father she stopped upon the landing-place, and was evidently on the point of as rapidly retreating as she had
