He has spent a great deal of money upon the Court
already, and means to spend more I hear."
"Has he spoiled it--modernised it, or anything of that kind?"
"No; I am glad to say that he--or his architect perhaps--has had the good
taste to preserve the mediaeval character of the place. He has restored the
stonework, renewing all the delicate external tracery where it was lost or
decayed, and has treated the interior in the same manner. I have dined with
Mr. Granger once or twice since the work was finished, and I must say the
place is now one of the finest in Yorkshire--perhaps the finest, in its
peculiar way. I doubt if there is so perfect a specimen of gothic domestic
architecture in the county."
"And it is gone from us for ever!" said Clarissa, with a profound sigh.
"Well, my dear Clary, it is a blow, certainly; I don't deny that. But there
is a bright side to everything; and really your father could not afford to
live in the place. It was going to decay in the most disgraceful manner. He
is better out of it; upon my word he is."
Clarissa could not see this. To lose Arden Court seemed to her unmitigated
woe. She would rather have lived the dreariest, loneliest life in one
corner of the grand old house, than have occupied a modern palace. It was
as if all the pleasant memories of her childhood had been swept away from
her with the loss of her early home. This was indeed beginning the world;
and a blank dismal world it appeared to Clarissa Lovel, on this melancholy
October morning.
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