immediately.
It was a bleak moorland house, surrounded by an orchard with trees
stunted & nipped, attended by a strange, wizened, rusty-coated old
manservant, but inside there were large rooms furnished with
elegance. I learned that Stapleton had had an Establishment in the
north, but through unfortunate circumstances had moved south. He said
they were both very happy. He could indulge his tastes for botany &
zoology. She had her books & their interesting neighbours, such as
Sir Charles had been. But there no ring of conviction in her words
when she agreed that she was never dull.
I declined to go upstairs and inspect his collection of Lepidoptera
and then to have lunch with them, but I promised to tell Sir Henry
that Stapleton wished to call on him in the afternoon to make his
