a prayer that if in the
future trouble must come, she might be the one to bear it, and that
Arthur might be shielded from a second crushing disappointment.

CHAPTER FIVE.

The next day the Savilles lost no time in consulting the agent who had
been commissioned to advertise for houses on their behalf, and he in his
turn presented them with a list of a dozen places which were for sale,
eight of which were obviously unsuitable, and none in the very least
like Peggy's ideal abode. This was a bitter disappointment to the
expectant trio, and the disappointment was not softened by the offhand
and independent manner in which they were treated, for the agent hinted
at inordinate expectations, smiled openly at Peggy's inquiry about a
moat, and floated off to attend to another inquirer, as if any other
subject were worth considering when the question of Colonel Saville's
future home was on the _tapis_!

Mrs Saville left the office with a crestfallen air, but her husband and
daughter stalked forth with their most military stride, and exchanged
glances of kindling irritation on the doorstep.

"Insubordinate wretch!" cried the colonel, the ends of his moustache
looking fiercer than ever, and his eyes gleaming with anger, for after
ruling as despot over his regiment for so many years, the lack of
deference shown by a mere civilian was a distinct trial to the flesh.
"There's a good deal to be said for our friends the natives after all,
Peg! If one of them had dared to treat me like that--"

"Just so!" assented Peggy. "I'm with you, father. I _do_ like people
to tremble at my nod, and in this land of freedom no one seems in the
least afraid of us. It's disgraceful. We had better take the train,
and look at this Uplands place. It seems the most likely of any on the
list, so I suppose we ought to see it."

To the Uplands, then, the trio betook themselves, to find disappointment
number two, for the name had evidently been bestowed in a spirit of
satire on a house situated in a valley, and shut in by a network of
trees. The rooms smelt like so many vaults, and presented a cheerful
pattern of mould upon the walls, while even Peggy's ardour could not
face the task of reducing a wilderness into a garden. A drive of three
miles brought the explorers to yet another desirable residence of so
uncompromisingly bleak and hideous an aspect that they drove away from
the gates without examining the interior, and returned to town fati