ly bright. His face had lost its
cynicism. Ten years seemed to have fallen from his shoulders like a
pack. He was a youth again, like Martin and Harry and Howard. Joan
noticed all this and was vaguely surprised--and glad, because obviously
she was giving him pleasure. He deserved it after her impish treatment
of him. What a fool she had been.

He said, bending down, "We keep the key here," and picked it up,
unlocked the door and stood back for her to pass.

"Oh, isn't this nice!" said Joan.

"Do you like it? It amused me to make it comfortable."

"Comfortable! But it's like a picture."

Gilbert laughed boyishly. Her enthusiasm delighted him. To make the
long low living room with its big brick chimney and open fireplace
absolutely right had dispelled his boredom--little as he had intended
to use it. The whole thing was carried out on the lines of the main
room in an English shooting box. The walls were matchboarded and
stained an oak color, and the floor was polished and covered with
skins. Old pewter plates and mugs, and queer ugly delightful bits of
pottery were everywhere--on shelves, on the wide mantelpiece, and
hanging from the beams. Colored sporting prints covered the walls,
among stuffed fish and heads of deer with royal antlers and beady eyes
with a fixed stare. The furniture was Jacobean--the chairs with ladder
backs and cane seats; a wide dresser, lined with colored plates; a long
narrow table with rails and bulging legs. Two old oak church pews were
set on each side of the fireplace filled with cushions covered with a
merry chintz. There were flowers everywhere in big bowls--red rambler
roses, primula, sweet williams, Shasta daisies, and scarlet poppies.
All the windows were open, and there was nothing damp or musty in the
smell of the room. On the contrary, the companionable aroma of tobacco
smoke hung in the air mixed with the sweet faint scent of flowers. The
place seemed "lived-in"--as well it might. The two Japs had played
gentlemen there for some weeks. The table was laid for two, and
appetizing dishes of cold food, salad and fruit were spread out on the
dresser and sideboard, with iced champagne and claret cup.

"The outside of the cottage didn't suggest all this comfort," said Joan.

"Comfort's the easiest thing in the world when you can pay for it.
There's one bedroom half the size of this and two small ones. A
bathroom and kitchen beyond. There's water, of course, and electric
light, and the