It drew him even when it lay
behind him, and he returned to it as the goal he had set out to
seek. It was as if, in every excursion or flight, he had but sought
to find his home afresh, to approach it by a new path. But--the
wind-fall?--nay, the God-send of the golden horse, gave him such a
feeling of wealth and freedom, that he now began to dream in a
fresh direction, namely, of things he would do if he were rich; and
as he was of a constructive disposition, his fancies in this
direction turned chiefly on the enlarging and beautifying of the
castle--but always with the impossibility understood of destroying
a feature of its ancient dignity and historic worth.
A portion of the early summer he spent in enlarging the garden on
the south side or back of the house. One portion of the ground
there seemed to him to have been neglected--the part which lay
between the block in which was the kitchen, and that in which was
the drawing-room. These stood at right angles to each other, their
gables making two sides of a square. But he found the rock so near
the surface, that he could not utilize much of it. This set him
planning how the space might be used for building. In the angle,
the rock came above ground entirely, and had been made the
foundation of a wall connecting the two corners, to defend the
court--a thick strong wall of huge stones, that seemed as solid as
the rock. He grew fond of the spot, almost forsaking for it his
formerly favoured stone, and in the pauses of his gardening would
sit with his back against this wall, dreaming of the days to come.
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