"No, no, the yew alley is on the other side."
The young heir glanced round with a gloomy face.
"It's no wonder my uncle felt as if trouble were coming on him in such a place as this," said he.
"It's enough to scare any man.
I'll have a row of electric lamps up here inside of six months, and you won't know it again, with a thousand candle-power Swan and Edison right here in front of the hall door."
The avenue opened into a broad expanse of turf, and the house lay before us.
In the fading light I could see that the centre was a heavy block of building from which a porch projected.
The whole front was draped in ivy, with a patch clipped bare here and there where a window or a coat of arms broke through the dark veil.
From this central block rose the twin towers, ancient, crenellated, and pierced with many loopholes.
To right and left of the turrets were more modern wings of black granite.