have great pleasure in taking you round. Jane, dear, come here."

Jane came up at once. She still wore her smut, but the duster was gone.

"Jane, let me introduce you to Miss Drummond. Her father is the new
owner of the Towers; Miss Drummond would like to see over the house, if
it would not trouble you too much to show her round."

"Trouble me," exclaimed Jane; "_that_ doesn't trouble me. Come, child,
this way. I'll go in front and you can follow. This is the smaller
drawing-room. It was here that Charles the Second passed a night in the
year of grace--"

"Oh, for heaven's sake," exclaimed Susy, stopping her ears, "don't go
into dates; the whole thing is confusing enough without dates."

Jane favoured her with a quick, contemptuous glance.

"I shan't dream of instructing you if you don't wish it, my dear," she
said. "Those who like ignorance, in ignorance they shall remain, as far
as Jane Macalister is concerned. Well, then, here's a room with three
windows and four walls and a ceiling and a floor. The furniture won't
belong to you, so you needn't look at it. Now come on. This room we also
use as a drawing-room, but _you_ needn't unless you like."

"Do stop, pray!" exclaimed Susy. "I can't rush through the place like
this. You are not a Lorrimer, are you?"

"No, I'm a Macalister, of the clan of----"

"Oh, please, I don't want to hear about the clan. What I wanted to say
was this, that I have got the tapes and measures in my pocket; Hester
tells me I mustn't use them on account of paining the Lorrimers, but as
you are not one, of course you won't mind. I see you have got carpets on
all the floors."

"Yes, why not? Carpets are put on most floors--at least they used to be
when I was young."

"But Antonia says that we ought to have parquetry and slippery rugs."

"And do you mean to tell me," exclaimed Jane, "that you are going to
heed the words of that poor daft lassie? It's nothing to me what you do,
of course, but that poor girl has not got her proper wits, and if I were
you I would try to follow someone with a grain of sense."

Susy laughed heartily.

"Antonia is as right as anyone else," she said "only she has a passion
for art."

"Preserve me from such a craze," exclaimed Jane. "How much longer are we
to stand in the middle of this floor while we talk about tapes and
measurements and that silly girl?"

"But may I measure?"

"You may do anything you please, provided you don't injure the
furniture.