Mrs. Tupper and I waited a good while, and then Bennoch and Tupper came
back, without having found Mr. ------. Tupper wished very much to show
the prayer-book used by King Charles at his execution, and some curious
old manuscript volumes; but the servant said that his master always kept
these treasures locked up, and trusted the key to nobody. We therefore
had to take our leave without seeing them; and I have not often entered a
house that one feels to be more forlorn than Wooton,--although we did
have a glimpse of a dining-room, with a table laid for three or four
guests, and looking quite brilliant with plate and glass and snowy
napery. There was a fire, too, in this one room. Mr. ------ is making
extensive alterations in the house, or has recently done so, and this is
perhaps one reason of its ungenial meagreness and lack of finish.
Before our departure from Wooton, Tupper had asked me to leave my card
for Mr. ------; but I had no mind to overstep any limit of formal
courtesy in dealing with an Englishman, and therefore declined. Tupper,
however, on his own responsibility, wrote his name, Bennoch's, and mine
on a piece of paper, and told the servant to show them to Mr. ------. We
soon had experience of the good effect of this; for we had scarcely got
back before somebody drove up to Tupper's door, and one of the girls,
looking out, exclaimed that there was Mr. ------ himself, and another
gentleman. He had set out, the instant he heard of our call, to bring
the three precious volumes for me to see.
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