Then suddenly she saw Manville Park.
It was not what she had expected. She could not have imagined anything so big and impressive – the great colonnaded front, the wings square and solid, the urns and statues on the roof silhouetted against the blue of the sky. It was as overwhelming as its owner and yet at the same time it was lovely.
She must have given an audible little gasp because Lord Manville looked down at her and asked,
“Do you like my house?”
“It is so big,” Candida answered. “Yes, it’s beautiful.”
It was built of grey stone and yet it had a kind of luminous quality about it. The house was set almost in a hollow with a lake at its foot and parklands stretched away on each side towards the horizon wild, green and verdant.
“Does it all belong to you?” Candida asked.
“Almost
