There is really a very pretty view from the dining-room," she said, as a
first effort at seeing something to admire. Both Juliet and Anthony agreed
to this statement with a cordiality which came very near suggesting that
it was a relief to find Mrs. Carey on the optimistic side of the
discussion even in this small detail. As for Carey, he looked so surprised
and grateful that Judith's heart smote her with a vigour to which she was
unaccustomed.

"I suppose you could use this room as a sort of den?" she was prompted to
suggest to her husband; and such a delighted smile illumined Carey's face
that the sight of it was almost pathetic to his friends, who understood
his situation rather better than he did himself. In his pleasure Carey put
his arm about his wife's shoulders.

"Couldn't I, though?" he agreed enthusiastically. "And you could use it
for a retreat while I was away for the day."

"A retreat from what? Too much excitement?" began Judith, the old habit of
scorn of everything which was not of the city returning upon her
irresistibly. But it chanced that she caught Juliet's eyes, unconsciously
wearing such an expression of solicitude to see her friend complaisant in
this matter which meant so much, that Judith hurriedly followed her ironic
question with the more kindly supplement: "But doubtless I should have
plenty, and be glad to get away."

"You certainly would," asserted Anthony. "We never guessed how much there
would be to occupy us in the country, but there seems hardly time to write
letters. Nobody can believe, till he tries, how much pleasure there is in
wheedling a garden into growing, nor how well the labour makes him sleep
o' nights."

"Yes--I think I could sleep here," said Carey, and passed a hand over a
brow which was aching at that very moment. "I haven't done that
satisfactorily for six months."

"You'll do it here," Anthony prophesied confidently. "It's a fine air with
a good breath of the salt sea in it, which we don't get. Your sleeping
rooms are all well aired and lighted--a thing you don't always find in
more pretentious houses. And when the paint and paper go on you'll own
yourselves surprised at the transformation. I was never so astonished in
my life as I was at the change in the little bedroom in our house which
has that pale yellow-and-white stripe on the wall. It was a north room,
and the old wall was a forlorn slate, like a thundercloud. My little
artist here, with her eye for colour