to do our house-hunting by ourselves.
'We shall get on quite comfortably, I am sure, Mr. Turner. Which house
shall we go to see first?'

"'The farthest off, I would advise,' said Mr. Turner. 'That is Hunter's
Hall. It is eight miles at least from this, and the days are so short.'

"'Is that the old house with the terraced garden?' I asked.

"Mr. Turner glanced at me benevolently.

"'Oh no, Miss,' he said. 'The terraced garden is at the Grange. Hunter's
Hall is a nice little place, but much smaller than the Grange. The
gardens at the Grange are really quite a show in summer.'

"'Perhaps they will be too much for us,' said Mary. 'My father does not
want a very large place, you understand, Mr. Turner--not being in good
health he does not wish to have the trouble of looking after much.'

"'I don't think you would find it too much,' said Mr. Turner. 'The
head gardener is to be left at Mr. H----'s expense, and he is very
trustworthy. But I can explain all these details this evening if you will
allow me, after you have seen the house,' and, so saying, the obliging
agent bade us good morning.

"'I am sure we shall like the Grange the best,' I said to Mary, when,
about ten o'clock, we found ourselves in the carriage Mr. Turner had
provided for us, slowly, notwithstanding the efforts of the two fat
horses that were drawing us, making our way along the snow-covered roads.

"'I don't know,' said Mary. 'I am afraid of its being too large. But
certainly Hunter's Hall is a long way from the town, and that is a
disadvantage.'

"A _very_ long way it seemed before we got there.

"'I could fancy we had been driving nearly twenty miles instead of
eight,' said Mary, when at last the carriage stopped before a sort of
little lodge, and the driver informed us we must get out there, there
being no carriage drive up to the house.

"'Objection number one,' said Mary, as we picked our steps along the
garden path which led to the front door. 'Father would not like to have
to walk along here every time he went out a drive. Dear me!' she added,
'how dreadfully difficult it is to judge of any place in snow! The house
looks so dirty, and yet very likely in summer it is a pretty bright white
house.'

"It was not a bad little house: there were two or three good rooms
downstairs and several fairly good upstairs, besides a number of small
inconvenient rooms that might have been utilised by a very large family,
but would be no good at all to