you_ find your most interesting chapters in the City, and I find mine
under the hedges in a country lane. It's all a matter of taste, but you
have as much right to your opinion as any one else."

"Oh, but I love the country, too," cried Peggy quickly. "You know I do!
We want to have our home in the country, and I intend to have the most
beautiful garden in the county. I have never yet seen a garden which
came up to my ideal, and I mean to show how things should be managed,
and to enjoy myself ever so much in planning it out. All the same, it
must be near town, so that we can run up when we feel inclined. People
first, and Nature second--them's my sentiments! I could not be happy
separated from my fellow-creatures."

Rob smiled in a patient, forbearing manner.

"Women are by nature gregarious. They can't help themselves, poor
things! Whatever they do, they need an audience. It's no satisfaction
to them to possess anything, unless they can show it off to a so-called
friend and make her green with envy. `What is the good of a nice house?
No one sees it!' That is Rosalind's cry, when by any chance we are
without visitors for a week at a time. `What is the use of wearing
pretty clothes? Nobody sees them!' The idea of enjoying a thing for
itself alone is unattainable to the feminine mind."

"Don't be superior, please! It's so easy to sneer and be sarcastic at
other people's expense. I could scorch you up at this moment if I
chose, but I refrain. Snubbing is a form of wit which has never made
any appeal to my imagination," cried Peggy grandiloquently, and Rob
chuckled to himself with delighted appreciation.

"Bravo, Mariquita! Score for you! I hide my diminished head. Look
here, though, I've got an idea which I present as a peace-offering. If
you don't succeed in getting a house near town, what do you say to Yew
Hedge, in our neighbourhood? It's to be sold, and you used to admire it
in the old days, I remember. It's a quaint, old-fashioned place, with a
drawing-room out of which you could make great things; six acres of
land, and some fine trees. Altogether you might do worse, and although
it is further in the country than you wish, there are several human
creatures in the neighbourhood who would be delighted to welcome you!"

"Rob, you admirable person! You have the most delightful ideas! Yew
Hedge! I have never been inside the house itself, but I remember
peeping over the hedge and admiring th