"Where is it? Very far?" asked Nan eagerly. "Could you and I go there by ourselves?"
"You'd better not attempt it," said Mrs. Corner. "Wait till Mr. Pinckney comes and we learn more."
Mr. Pinckney arrived early in the afternoon. The carriage which he drove would seat but three others, so Nan, by reason of her superior years, was given a place to the great disappointment of the twins. They were comforted, however, by Mr. Pinckney's promise to take them the following day, if it was decided that the house would suit.
"You couldn't both go, anyhow," Mary Lee reminded them, "so it will be much better to wait."
"If Mr. St. Nick were not so fat I could sit with him and Nan," said Jack.
"But he is fat, so there is no use if-ing," returned Mary Lee.
But though the twins were disappointed Nan was in her element. Such an expedition appealed to her strongly; it had all the element of a voyage of discovery and meant much. Up the hillside they drove, passing quaint adobe houses of the old Spanish town, attracted by rose-embowered cottages, peeping in at some more pretentious mansion within whose grounds grew palms and tropical plants. "When you consider that the city covers thirty-six square miles," remarked Mr. Pinckney, "you may imagine that one can drive quite a distance before reaching the further edge. The house we are to see is in the suburbs and we have some way to go."
"Is it near Mrs. Roberts'?" asked Nan eagerly.
"Not very far; within easy walking distance; that is one of the advantages, we think."
"There is the ocean," cried Nan, as a far-off glittering line of light caught her eye.