Durnmelling, too, had in part sunk into
ruin, and had been but partially recovered from it; still, it
swelled important beside its antecedent Thornwick. Nothing but a
deep ha-ha separated the two houses, of which the older and
smaller occupied the higher ground. Between it and the ha-ha was
nothing but grass--in front of the house fine enough and well
enough kept to be called lawn, had not Godfrey's pride refused
the word. On the lower, the Durnmelling side of the fence, were
trees, shrubbery, and out-houses--the chimney of one of which,
the laundry, gave great offense to Mrs. Wardour, when, as she
said, wind and wash came together. But, although they stood so
near, there was no lawful means of communication between the
houses except the road; and the mile that implied was seldom
indeed passed by any of the unneighborly neighbors.
The father of Lady Margaret would at one time have purchased
Thornwick at twice its value; but the present owner could not
have bought it at half its worth. He had of late been losing
money heavily--whence, in part, arose that anxiety of Lady
Margaret's not to keep Mr. Redmain fretting for his lunch.
The house of Durnmelling, new compared with that of Thornwick,
was yet, as I have indicated, old enough to have passed also
through vicissitudes, and a large portion of the original
structure had for many years been nothing better than a ruin.
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