Cyril Ashley by ALOE Author:Charlotte Maria Tucker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. A NIGHT VIEW. j]ITTER were the reflections of Cyril Ashley as he paced up and down his own apartment on that first evening after his retur... more »n. It can scarcely be said that he was disappointed, for his hopes had never been highly raised; but he had found the state of things at Mudimote worse than even his fancy had drawn them. Cyril had arrived in the dusk, at the close of a wet, un- genial day. He had needed, however, but little light to see at a glance a change even in the outer features of the place. The lawn, wont to be smooth as velvet, had not been mown for a month, nor weeded for years, and was rough and torn up by horses' hoofs — Rhoda and her brothers, when mounted, preferring the grass to the gravel drive. Their mother's favourite larch—the beauty of the place—had been broken during the preceding winter by a boisterous gale; and a stump, about twofeet high, was all that was left of the graceful tree whose " silken tassels " Mrs. Burton had so admired on each return of spring. The flower-beds which, three years before, had been brilliant with many- coloured flowers, arranged with taste the most perfect, were now half overgrown with weeds ; and the flowers that remained looked straggling and wild. What more could be expected where the gardener was a drunkard, and the master too indolent to supervise or reprove him ! Cyril's rapid glance at the exterior of the large stuccoed house, took in marks of dilapidation caused by neglect. The plaster on the walls appeared to be cracked in a few places, and weather-stained in many ; a bit of the cornice, which had broken off, had not been replaced. The greenhouse, Mrs. Burton's delight, had many of its panes broken, and appeared to be empty of everything save old flower-pots, minus the flowers. The very chimneys w...« less