John Halifax, Gentleman by Dinah Mulock

Father and son -- a goodly sight, as they paced side by side up and down the gravel walk -- (alas! the pretty field-path belonged to days that were! ) -- up and down the broad, sunshiny walk, in front of the breakfast-room windows of Beechwood Hall.

It was early -- little past eight o'clock; but we kept Longfield hours and Longfield ways still. And besides, this was a grand day -- the day of Guy's coming of age. Curious it seemed to watch him, as he walked along by his father, looking every inch "the young heir; " and perhaps not unconscious that he did so; -- curious enough, remembering how meekly the boy had come into the world, at a certain old house at Norton Bury, one rainy December morning, twenty-one years ago.