Country life -- England -- Fiction; England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
The grass of the park grew right up to the stones of the castle wall on
this side. Just above him were some great beeches, which seemed to be
climbing the hill that rose behind. Below there were more trees, and
between them stretched a glade which led the eye to further undulations
of moonlit grass, and the bare trunks and branches of the trees that
bordered them. He had been rather disappointed, in coming first into
his room, to find that it did not look out on to the gardens; but under
the moon this romantic glimpse of silvered trees and fairy glades seemed
to him more beautiful than any tamed or ordered garden.
Anything might happen out there, on such a night. Oberon and Titania
suggested themselves to him; the least that could be expected to happen
was that a herd of deer led by a many-antlered stag should wander across
a moonlit glade, and give just that touch of life that was wanted to
enhance the lovely scene.
What actually did happen was that his eye was caught by a moving figure
in the shadow of the trees, and, before he had had time to wonder, or
even to be startled by it, came out into the bright stretch of grass in
front of his window, and stood looking up at him.
It was young Sir Harry, owner of Royd Castle and all the magic beauty
connected with it that was making such an impression upon the
clerico-novelist’s susceptible mind, but though in that fortunate
position not yet of an age to be out under the trees of his park at this
time of night. At nine o’clock he had said good-night to his
grandmother’s guest downstairs. Grant had thought it full early for a
boy of his age to be sent up to bed, as Lady Brent had actually sent
him, though without insistence, and with no protest on his part. He was
no more than sixteen, but a well-grown boy, in the evening garb of a
man; and he had sat opposite to his grandmother at the head of the table
and taken a bright part in the conversation, so that, with his title to
give him still further dignity, he had seemed altogether beyond the
stage of being sent early to bed.
However, it appeared that bed had not been the aim of his departure,
after all. He stood looking up at the window, not far above the ground,
with a smile upon his handsome young face, and asked his grandmother’s
guest not to give him away. "I come out sometimes like this, when
everybody is asleep," he said. "There’s no harm in it, but Granny would
try to stop me if she knew—lock me in, perhaps." He laughed freely.
"So please don’t tell her," he said, and melted away into the shadows
without waiting for a promise of secrecy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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