and she loved every
room, hall and passage. There were fascinating windows, great wide and
deep ones, and little oriels and dormers. There were unexpected turns and
nooks, and there was,--which brought joy to Patty's heart,--plenty of
closet space.

The whole place was of noble proportions and magnificent size, but
Patty's home-making talents brought cosiness to the rooms they themselves
used and stateliness and beauty to the more formal apartments.

"We must look ahead," she told Billee, "for I expect to spend my whole
life here. I don't want to fix a place up just as I like it, and then
scoot off and leave it and live somewhere else. And when our daughter
begins to have beaux and entertain house parties, we'll need all the
room there is."

"You have what Mr. Lucas calls a 'leaping mind,'" Bill remarked. "But I'm
ready to confess I like room enough to swing a cat in,--even if I've no
intention of swinging poor puss."

And so they set blithely to work to furnish their ancestral halls, as
Patty called them, claiming that an ancestral hall had to have a
beginning some time, and she was beginning hers now.

Such fun as it was selecting rugs and hangings, furniture and ornaments,
books and pictures.

Lots of things they had bought abroad, for Captain Bill had been
fortunate in his affairs and had had some leisure time in France and
England after the war was over to collect some art treasures.

Also, they didn't try or want to complete the whole house at once. Part
of the fun would be in adding bits later on, and if there were no place
to put them, there would be no fun in buying things.

Patty was a wise and careful buyer. Only worth-while things were
selected, not a miscellaneous collection of trumpery junk. So the
result to date was charming furniture and appointments, but space for
more when desired.

Little Billee's taste, too, was excellent, and he and Patty nearly always
agreed on their choice. But it was a rule that if either disapproved,
the thing in question was not bought. Only such as both sanctioned could
come into their home.

The house had a wide and hospitable Colonial doorway, with broad fanlight
above and columns at either side. Seats, too, flanked the porch, and the
carefully trimmed wistaria vine hung gracefully over all. Across both
ends of the house ran wide verandahs, with _porte cochere_, sun parlour,
conservatory and tea-porch breaking the monotony.

Patty's own bedroom was an exquisite