"Would you build on this spot?" she asked him.
"What would you advise?" he returned. She swept the situation with her gaze.
"There are sites higher up, or lower down," she said. "Lower is too low. Higher—you might see the chimney."
Ellis noted with satisfaction the prejudice against Mather's landmark, but he passed the remark by. "Don't you like," he said, "a house placed at the highest possible point? It is so striking."
"Couldn't it be too much so?" she inquired.
He turned his sharp look on her, willing to take a lesson and at the same time make it evident that he welcomed the instruction. "That is a new idea," he said. "It explains why that chimney, for instance, is unpleasant."
"It is so tall and—stupid," explained Judith; "and you never can get rid of it."
"I understand," he said. "Then perhaps this is the best place to build. I could get it roofed in before winter, easily, and have the whole thing ready by next summer. Stables where the barn stands, I suppose. My architect could get out the plans in a fortnight."
"The same architect," queried Judith, "that built your city house?" There was that in her voice which seized Ellis's attention.