My young conductress locked the gate, and we went across the courtyard. It was paved and clean, but grass was growing in every crevice. The brewery buildings had a little lane of communication with it, and the wooden gates of that lane stood open, and all the brewery beyond stood open, away to the high enclosing wall; and all was empty and disused. The cold wind seemed to blow colder there than outside the gate; and it made a shrill noise in howling in and out at the open sides of the brewery, like the noise of wind in the rigging of a ship at sea.

     She saw me looking at it, and she said, "You could drink without hurt all the strong beer that's brewed there now, boy."

     "I should think I could, miss," said I, in a shy way.

     "Better not try to brew beer there now, or it would turn out sour, boy; don't you think so?"

     "It looks like it, miss."

     "Not that anybody means to try," she added, "for that's all done with, and the place will stand as idle as it is till it falls. As to strong beer, there's enough of it in the cellars already, to drown the Manor House."

     "Is that the name of this house, miss?"

     "One of its names, boy."