"Anne, I don't like to think of you and Rogie living in this place. You ought to have the cottage. I only moved back because there seemed no reason not to."
Anne leaned against the onyx stand; she could get no farther, but her voice was steady and she even smiled slightly and looked in forced amusement about the room.
"It is pretty bad, isn't it? But I don't come in here often."
"Are your own any better?"
"Not exactly—in the furnishing, but the sitting-room looks over a garden and there's a little triangle of bay."
Roger locked about, trying to get clearer the location of the house.
"Darn little bay from any part of this house. Anne, won't you take the cottage? I have to be away a great deal now. It doesn't matter much where I live in between times."
"I—don't—see how I can quite—not yet, anyhow." By speaking so, very slowly in assumed consideration of this as a proposition, Anne succeeded in keeping her voice even. "I may get a raise after New Year's, although it's rather soon to expect one, but at present I couldn't pay the cottage rent and have Mrs. Horton too. This is ridiculously cheap and when Mrs. Jeffries is here she takes such care of Rogie."
"Isn't she here all the time?"
"Not at present. She had to go to a brother-in-law. Her sister died and left several children. She may bring them back with her."