onel, whereat
his wife and daughter exchanged glances of amusement, for if ever there
lived a man who adored his fellow-creatures, and delighted in crowding
his house from floor to ceiling with unexpected guests, that man was
Colonel Saville, and would be until his death.

Mrs Asplin understood the meaning of that glance, and giving up the
colonel as a hopeless case, addressed herself instead to his wife.

"And I am afraid the pantry is poor, and the scullery also. Mrs Selby
used to complain of them and of the lack of conveniences. There are no
cupboards, and the--"

It was of no use. Mrs Saville was as intractable as her husband, and
refused to listen to any warning.

"Dear Mrs Asplin," she said sweetly, "I don't know anything about
cupboards. We never worried about these things in India; the servants
managed somehow, and I presume they can manage here. The entertaining
rooms are large enough to take in our furniture, and Peggy likes them.
Those are the great points which we have to consider. If there are
enough bedrooms to take us in, I think we shall be satisfied."

This Saville trio was the most impracticable party of house-hunters whom
the vicar's wife had ever known, and she wondered no longer at the
difficulty they had experienced in finding a house to their taste, when
she noted the spirit in which they surveyed the present premises. A
convenience was not a convenience at all if it interfered with a fad or
fancy, and a serious drawback was hailed with delight if it appeared in
quaint or unexpected fashion. As a matter of fact, the purchase of the
house had been a foregone conclusion, since the moment when Peggy had
beheld the oak walls of the dining-room, and within twenty-four hours
from that moment it was a concluded fact.

Ah, then and there was hurrying to and fro, and endless journeys up to
town, and interviews with obstinate decorators, who would insist on
obtruding their own ideas, and battles waged with British workmen, who
could not understand why one shade of a colour was not as good as
another, or wherein lay the deadly necessity that they should match.
Peggy put a penny in the slot and weighed herself on the machine at the
station every second or third day, to verify her statement that she was
wasting to a shadow beneath the nervous strain. She was left at the
vicarage in order to superintend the workmen, while Colonel and Mrs
Saville stayed in town to interview furniture dealers and u