Page:The Dark Frigate (Hawes).djvu/254

a dark drapery upon the grey walls of the old house. A huge dog came bounding and roaring down the avenue, but when the lad smiled without fear and reached a friendly hand toward him, the beast stopped clamouring and came quietly to heel. Lights shone from the windows and softly on the still evening air the thin, sweet music of a virginal stole over the broad terraces and lawns.

The clamour of the dog, it seemed, had attracted the attention of those within, for a grey-haired servant met the stranger in the door. He stood there suspiciously, forbiddingly, and with a cold stare searched the young man from head to heel.

“I would have speech of Sir John Bristol," said Phil.

The servant frowned. ‘‘Nay, you have blundered,” he replied haughtily. ‘‘The servants’ hall — ”

“I said Sir John.”

“Sir John? It is — ahem! — impossible.”

"I said Sir John."

The servant moved as if to shut the door.

“Come,” said Phil quietly, ‘‘enough of that! I will have speech of Sir John Bristol.”

For a moment the servant hesitated, then from within a great voice cried, ‘‘Come, Cobden, what’s afoot?”

In haughty disapproval of the lad without, the servant turned his back, but to the man within he spoke with deference, as if apologizing. ‘‘Yea, Sir John. The fellow is insistent, but I shall soon have him off.”

“Go, Cobden. Leave him to me.”

The servant moved away and disappeared.

The virginalling had ceased, and on the lawns and the avenue and the park, which stretched away into the dark valley, a deep silence had come with the twi-