of Mr. Elton's property spoken of. He had passed the place with Rebecca, and they had together admired its secluded and picturesque situation. The house stood at a little distance from the road, more than half hid by two patriarchal elms. Behind the house, the grounds descended gradually to the Housatonick, whose nourishing dews kept them arrayed in beautiful verdure. On the opposite side of the river, and from its very margin, rose a precipitous mountain, with its rich garniture of beach, maple, and linden; tree surmounting tree, and the images of all sent back by the clear mirror below; for the current there was so gentle, that, in the days of fable, a poet might have fancied the Genius of the stream had paused to woo the Nymphs of the wood.
Mr. Lloyd had no family ties to Philadelphia. He preferred a country life; not supinely to dream away existence, but he hoped there to cultivate and employ a "talent for doing good;" that talent which a noble adventurer declared he most valued, and which, though there is a field for its exercise, wherever any members of the human family are, he compassed sea and land to find new worlds in which to expend it.
Mr. Lloyd purchased the place and furniture, precisely as it had been left on the morning of the sale by Jane and her friend Mary.
