47285    'Why, you had not very much time for talk,' her brother remarked, with the same questioning eyes.

47286    'I talked as if Dr Watson were a resident instead of being merely a visitor,' said she.

47287    'It cannot much matter to him whether it is early or late for the orchids.

47288    But you will come on, will you not, and see Merripit House?'

47289    A short walk brought us to it, a bleak moorland house, once the farm of some grazier in the old prosperous days, but now put into repair and turned into a modern dwelling.

47290    An orchard surrounded it, but the trees, as is usual upon the moor, were stunted and nipped, and the effect of the whole place was mean and melancholy.

47291    We were admitted by a strange, wizened, rusty-coated old manservant, who seemed in keeping with the house.

47292    Inside, however, there were large rooms furnished with an elegance in which I seemed to recognize the taste of the lady.

47293    As I looked from their windows at the interminable granite-flecked moor rolling unbroken to the farthest horizon I could not but marvel at what could have brought this highly educated man and this beautiful woman to live in such a place.

47294    'Queer spot to choose, is it not?' said he, as if in answer to my thought.

47295    'And yet we manage to make ourselves fairly happy, do we not, Beryl?'

47296    'Quite happy,' said she, but there was no ring of conviction in her words.

47297    'I had a school,' said Stapleton.

47298    'It was in the north country.

47299    The work to a man of my temperament was mechanical and uninteresting, but the privilege of living with youth, of helping to mould those young minds and of impressing them with one's own character and ideals, was very dear to me.