Nell looked up at it. She was half confused by the splendors of the
place and her efforts to follow the descriptions and explanations of the
stately housekeeper; but as she raised her eyes to the portrait she was
conscious of a sensation of surprise. For in some vague way the portrait
reminded her of Drake. The pictured Angleford wore a ruff, and was
habited in satin and armor, but the face---"Come on! What are you staring at?" said Dick, impatiently; and she
followed the cicerone into another room, and listened to the monotonous
voice repeating the well-learned lesson.
"We have here the library, the famous Angleford library. There are
twenty thousand volumes, many of them unique. They are often consulted
by savants--with the permission of the earl. Many of them are priceless.
That portrait is Lord Bacon," et cetera, et cetera.
"Let us go," whispered Nell, in Dick's ear. "The greatness of the house
of Angleford is getting on my nerves! I--I can't help thinking of
Beaumont Buildings! It is too great a contrast!"
"Shut up!" retorted Dick, who was intensely interested.
Nell went through the remainder of the inspection with a vague feeling
of dissatisfaction. What right had any one man to such luxury, to such
splendor, while others were born to penury and suffering?
While she was asking herself this question, the housekeeper had led them
to the picture gallery, the gallery which artists came from all corners
of the world to visit.
"Portraits of the earls of Angleford," she said, waving a black-clad,
condescending arm.
"Is the portrait of the present Earl of Angleford here?" asked Dick,
with not unnatural interest.
"No, sir. The present earl is not here. You see, it was not thought that
he would be the earl. That is the late earl. Would you like to see the
stables? If so, I will call the head coachman----"
But they had seen enough for one day, and, almost in silence, walked
back to the lodge.
"I wonder whether Lord Angleford knows, realizes, how big a man he is?"
said Dick, as he smoked his last pipe that night in the sitting room of
the lodge. "We've seen the house, but we haven't seen the park or the
estates or the farms, which extend for miles around. Fancy owning all
this, and a title, a name, which every boy and girl learns about when
they read their English history!"
"I decline to fancy to realize anything more," said Nell, with a laugh.
"That old woman's voice rings in my ears, and I feel as if I were
intoxicated with, overwhelmed by, the grandeur of the Anglefords. I am
going to bed now, Dick. To bed in a house in the country, with the scent
of the flowers stealing in at the windows! Oh, think of it! and think
of--Beaumont Buildings! Dick, would it be possible to obtain the post of
lodgekeeper to Anglemere House? I envy the meanest laborer on the
estate. Next to being the earl himself, I think I would like to be
keeper of one of the lodges, or--or chief of the laundry!"