She  went  and  fetched  her  work-basket  at  once,  however,  and
set  about  it,  tacking  the  edges  to  a  strip  of  canvas,  in  prepara-
tion for  some  kind  of  darning,  which  would  not,  she  hoped,  be
unsightly.
For  a  whole  week  she  and  the  carpenter  were  the  only  per-
sons I  admitted,  and  while  she  gave  to  her  darning  every  mo-
ment she  could  redeem  from  her  attendance  on  Lady  Brother-
ton,  the  carpenter  and  I  were  busy, — he  cleaning  and  polish-
ing, and  I  ranging  the  more  deserted  parts  of  the  house  to  find
furniture  suitable  for  our  purpose.  In  Clara's  room  was  an
old  Turkey  carpet  which  we  appropriated,  and  when  we  had
the  tapestry  up  again,  which  Miss  Pease  had  at  length  restored
hi  a  marvelous  manner— surpassing  my  best  hopes,  and  more
like  healing  than  repairing, — the  place  was  to  my  eyes  a  very
nest  of  dusky  harmonies.
THE  OLD   CHEST.  307


CHAPTER   XXXVII.
THE  OLD  CHEST.
I  CANNOT  help  dwelling  for  a  moment  on  the  scene,  although
it  is  not  of  the  slightest  consequence  to  my  story,  when  Sir
Giles  and  Lady  Brotherton  entered  the  reading-room  of  the
resuscitated  library  of  Moldwarp  Hall.  It  was  a  bright  day
of  autumn.  Outside  all  was  brilliant.  The  latticed  oriel
looked  over  the  lawn  and  the  park,  where  the  trees  had  begun
to  gather  those  rich  hues  which  could  hardly  be  the  heralds
of  death  if  it  were  the  ugly  thing  it  appears.  Beyond  the
fading  woods  rose  a  line  of  blue  heights  meeting  the  more
ethereal  blue  of  the  sky,  now  faded  to  a  colder  and  paler  tint.
