CHAPTER XIII.

THE HOTEL.

AFTER the children had gone Mrs. Morelle spent a little time in getting settled in her room, and then went out into the garden to see the flowers. A portion of this garden, or rather lawn, for it consisted chiefly of green and smooth slopes of grass, ornamented here and there with little copses of shrubbery, and borders, and beds of flowers, is to be seen in the engraving beyond the corner of the house. Far the larger portion of it, however, is out of view. The grass on this lawn, where grass was allowed to grow, was as soft and smooth as velvet. The surface of the ground had originally been perfectly smooth and quite hard, and the grass which grew upon it was shaved close every two or three days with the scythe, which made it very soft and fine, and the feeling of it to the feet in walking upon it was like that of a rich carpet.

Then there were a great many smooth and pretty gravel walks to be seen running in all directions, following the inequalities of the ground,

and winding about among the copses of shrubbery and along the parterres of flowers. Some of these led to pretty bowers, or secluded seats covered with honeysuckles and climbing roses. Some of the paths led up to seats which were placed upon little eminences, and which commanded a fine but not very near view of the sea. The view could not be very near, for the village of Shanklin is near the head of the Chine, and as the Chine is about a quarter of a mile long, the hotel, which was in the margin of the village, was necessarily at that distance from the sea. Besides it was raised high above the sea, too, for the cliffs through which the Chine cuts its way are about two hundred feet high at the shore, and nearly three hundred feet back at the head of the chine, where the village stands. The view of the sea was therefore not a near one, and the ships and steamers, moreover, that were passing by kept off at a great distance from the coast, to avoid the shallow water that is formed along the shore by the sand and debris which result from the undermining and abrasion of the cliffs, and the grinding down of the materials into sand and pebbles by the waves.

In consequence of the ships and steamers being so distant, they appeared, as Mrs. Morelle looked upon them from the seats in the garden,

to be creeping slowly over the surface of the water with an almost insensible motion, although they were really ploughing their way along with a swiftness twice as great as that of the rapid trotting of a horse.

There were several people walking about the grounds of the hotel when Mrs. Morelle went out. There were ladies sitting in shady places reading or sewing, and nurses taking care of children. Some of the paths led back into a wood which extended behind the house, where there were seats under venerable trees, and many smooth and shady places convenient for children to play. In one of these was a group of four or five very nicely dressed children, playing with a large and soft india-rubber ball, and making the woods ring with their shouts of laughter.

It was somewhat curious to observe that the boys on these grounds wore hats just like men, only, of course, smaller. It is the custom for boys in England to wear hats, in form precisely like those of men.

The ladies, too, when they are riding on horseback wear hats of almost precisely the same form.

Mrs. Morelle walked about the grounds a little while, and was very much pleased with the charming manner in which they were arranged

and adorned. She passed several ladies in the different walks, but they either took no notice of her whatever, as they passed, or else looked upon her with so ceremonious and haughty an air, that they seemed to intend to notify her expressly beforehand that they did not wish to become acquainted with her, or to have any thing to say to her at all.

Mrs. Morelle walked about the grounds for half an hour or more, examining the shrubbery and flowers and trying the various seats, and then strolled round by the front of the house, and so in by the porch door at which they had descended from the carriage. Besides the opening in this porch to the front, leading toward the road, there was also one in the side, as will be seen in the engraving, where there was a path leading round in front of the house toward the garden and grounds.

After standing at the porch door a few minutes, to see the people and the carriages going to and fro along the road, Mrs. Morelle returned through the hall to her room. While she had been gone, the pretty chambermaid had brought her, according to her request, a number of entertaining books, and after selecting one, which was a bound volume of a magazine, full of stories and pretty engravings, she sat down in a

comfortable arm-chair in her window, where she could read at her ease, and in the intervals of her reading could survey, by just lifting up her eyes from her book, all that was going on upon the grounds, and could also see what was passing on the sea, a distant view of which her window commanded. The first time that she looked she saw a large ship with all sails spread, and a steamer, which she knew by the smoke-although it was so distant that she could see little besides the smoke-and also several sail-boats which were nearer.

This glimpse of the sea and of the vessels. upon it was seen through an opening in the trees, as is shown in the engraving.