urn gardeners, and
trot about all day long tending our plants. Did I tell you that we were
going to have a garden? Oh yes--a beauty!--with soft turf paths,
bordered with roses, and every flower that blooms growing in the
borders. We will have an orchard, too, where the spring bulbs come up
among the grass; and I've set my heart on a moat. It has been the dream
of my life to have a moat. `Mariquita of the Moated Grange!'... Sounds
well, doesn't it? It would be good for me to have an address like that,
for I possess a strong instinct of fitness, and make a point of living
up to my surroundings." Peggy lay back in her seat and coughed in the
languid, Anglo-Indian fashion which was her latest accomplishment. "I
suppose you don't happen to know the sort of house that would suit us?"

"Within half an hour of London? No! That is too much to ask. It's a
Chateau en Espagne, Peggy, and not to be had in Middlesex. You will
have to do like the rest of the world, and settle down in a red brick
villa, with a plot of uncultivated land out of which to manufacture your
garden. There will be neither green sward nor festoons of roses; but,
on the other hand, the house will contain every modern convenience, and
there will be hot and cold water, electric light--"

"Don't!" cried Peggy hastily. She lifted her hand with a gesture of
entreaty, and Hector was startled to see how seriously she had taken his
jesting words. "Don't laugh at me! I've been dreaming of it so long,
and it's such a dear, dear dream. Do you realise that in all my life I
have never had a permanent home? It has been a few years here, a few
years there, with always the certainty of another change ahead; but now
we mean to find a real home, where we can take refuge, with all our
possessions around us. Mother and I have talked about it until we can
_see_ every nook and corner, and it is waiting for us somewhere--I know
it is! So don't be sceptical, and pretend that it is not! We won't
talk about houses any more, but you shall tell me your own news. It is
four years since I saw Rob and Rosalind, as they were abroad for the
year before I left England. But you have been home since then, I know."

"Yes; only eighteen months ago. I should not be back so soon, but I've
had an attack of fever, and am taking a few months off, to pull myself
together. I'm glad our home-goings have taken place at the same time.
What do you want to know? My people were much a