eight beds--
didn't he Rose?"

"There are six bedrooms," said Mrs. Fisher; for both she and Lady
Caroline had thoroughly searched the house on arriving, in order to see
which part of it they would be most comfortable in, and they both knew
that there were six bedrooms, two of which were very small, and in one
of these small ones Francesca slept in the company of a chair and a
chest of drawers, and the other, similarly furnished, was empty.

Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot had hardly looked at the house,
having spent most of their time out-of-doors gaping at the scenery, and
had, in the agitated inattentiveness of their minds when first they
began negotiating for San Salvatore, got into their heads that the
eight beds of which the owner spoke were the same as eight bedrooms;
which they were not. There were indeed eight beds, but four of them
were in Mrs. Wilkins's and Mrs. Arbuthnot's rooms.

"There are six bedrooms," repeated Mrs. Fisher. "We have four,
Francesca has the fifth, and the sixth is empty."

"So that," said Scrap, "However kind we feel we would be if we
could, we can't. Isn't it fortunate?"

"But then there's only room for one?" said Mrs. Wilkins, looking
round at the three faces.

"Yes--and you've got him," said Scrap.

Mrs. Wilkins was taken aback. This question of the beds was unexpected.
In inviting Mellersh she had intended to put him in one of the four
spare-rooms that she imagined were there. When there were plenty of
rooms and enough servants there was no reason why they should, as they
did in their small, two-servanted house at home, share the same one.
Love, even universal love, the kind of love with which she felt herself
flooded, should not be tried. Much patience and self-effacement were
needed for successful married sleep. Placidity; a steady faith; these
too were needed. She was sure she would be much fonder of Mellersh,
and he not mind her nearly so much, if they were not shut up together
at night, if in the morning they could meet with the cheery affection
of friends between whom lies no shadow of differences about the window
or the washing arrangements, or of absurd little choked-down resentments
at something that had seemed to one of them unfair. Her happiness, she
felt, and her ability to be friends with everybody, was the result of
her sudden new freedom and its peace. Would there be that sense of
freedom, that peace, after a night shut up with Mellersh? Would she be
a