I ascended the steps, and stood before the arch--filled with a great iron-studded oaken gate--which led through a square tower into the court. I stood gazing for some minutes before I rang the bell. Two things in particular I noticed. The first was--over the arch of the doorway, amongst others--one device very like the animal’s head upon the watch and the seal which my great-grandmother had given me. I could not be sure it was the same, for the shape--both in the stone and in my memory--was considerably worn. The other interested me far more. In the great gate was a small wicket, so small that there was hardly room for me to pass without stooping. A thick stone threshold lay before it. The spot where the right foot must fall in stepping out of the wicket was worn into the shape of a shoe, to the depth of between three and four inches I should judge, vertically into the stone. The deep foot-mould conveyed to me a sense of the coming and going of generations, such as I could not gather from the age-worn walls of the building. A great bell-handle at the end of a jointed iron-rod hung down by the side of the wicket. I rang. An old woman opened the wicket, and allowed me to enter. I thought I remembered the way to Mrs Wilson’s door well enough, but when I ascended the few broad steps, curved to the shape of the corner in which the entrance stood, and found myself in the flagged court, I was bewildered, and had to follow the retreating portress for directions. A word set me right, and I was soon in Mrs Wilson’s presence. She received me kindly, and expressed her satisfaction that I had kept what she was pleased to consider my engagement. After some refreshment and a little talk, Mrs Wilson said, ‘Now, Master Cumbermede, would you like to go and see the gardens, or take a walk in the park and look at the deer?’ ‘Please, Mrs Wilson,’ I returned, ‘you promised to show me the house.’ ‘You would like that, would you?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered,--‘better than anything.’ ‘Come, then,’ she said, and took a bunch of keys from the wall. ‘Some of the rooms I lock up when the family’s away.’