sily pick out enough
from Cholmondely Street and White Ladies."

There was a moment's silence.

Then--

"I'm on," said Jonah, who had caught three splendid salmon in the last
two days. "This place suits me."

"And me," said Adele warmly.

My sister turned to her husband.

"What d'you think, old chap?"

Berry smiled beatifically. A far-away look came into his eyes.

"I shall personally superintend," he announced, "the removal and
destruction of the geyser."

Amid some excitement the matter was then and there decided.

The more we thought upon it, the sounder seemed the idea. The place
suited us all. To have our things about us would be wholly delightful.
Provided we meant for the future to winter abroad, we should save money.

Pleasedly we proceeded to lunch.

Throughout the meal we discussed what manner of house ours must be,
situation, dimensions, aspect. We argued amiably about its garden and
curtilage. We determined to insist upon two bathrooms. By the time
the cheese was served, we had selected most of the furniture and were
bickering good-temperedly about the style of the wall-papers.

Then we rang up a house-agent, to learn that he had no unfurnished
villa "to let" upon his books. He added gratuitously that, except for
a ruined chateau upon the other side of Tarbes, he had nothing "for
sale" either.

So soon as we had recovered, we returned to the charge...

The third agent we addressed was not quite certain. There was, he
said, a house in the town--_tres solids, tres serieuse, dans un
quartier chic_. It would, he thought, be to our liking. It had, for
instance, _une salle de fete superbe_. He was not sure, however, that
it was still available. A French gentleman was much attracted, and had
visited it three times.

We were greatly disgusted and said so. We did not want a house in the
town. We wanted....

Finally we succumbed to his entreaties and promised to view the villa,
if it was still in the market. He was to ring us up in ten minutes'
time....

So it happened that half an hour later we were standing curiously
before the great iron gates of a broad shuttered mansion in the Rue
Mazagran, Pau, while the agent was alternately pealing the bell for the
caretaker and making encouraging gestures in our direction.

Viewed from without, the villa was not unpleasing. It looked extremely
well-built, it stood back from the pavement, it had plenty of elbow
room. The street itsel