It was at this time that Grace approached the house.

Her knock, always soft in virtue of her nature, was softer to-day by reason of her strange errand.

However, it was heard by the farmer's wife who kept the house, and Grace was admitted.

Opening the door of the doctor's room the housewife glanced in, and imagining Fitzpiers absent, asked Miss Melbury to enter and wait a few minutes while she should go and find him, believing him to be somewhere on the premises.

Grace acquiesced, went in, and sat down close to the door.
As soon as the door was shut upon her she looked round the room, and started at perceiving a handsome man snugly ensconced in the couch, like the recumbent figure within some canopied mural tomb of the fifteenth century, except that his hands were by no means clasped in prayer.