"Do let's have a Chinese servant."
"Perhaps we can try one."
"And we can have a garden?"
"If we can find a house with one attached. I think it is extremely probable that we will have one. A little cottage of about six or eight rooms will be large enough, I think, and, if we can, we will have a garden where the geraniums will grow so high that they will shade our second story windows, and where roses will bloom in January. We will not be too far from orange groves and olive orchards nor too distant from the city, and we must be near enough to slip over into Mexico and to have the Pacific ocean for a neighbor. We shall hear Spanish spoken, and the ancient missions will give an old world air to our surroundings. We shall be where your mother will gain strength and health, and where you will have the opportunity of learning all sorts of new things, where I shall try to forget many sad things of my old life, and shall feel that I have a sister and her children to make me content and give me a new peace. Do you like the picture, West Corner?"
"It is beautiful. Now it all seems real. I can see everything, dearest, it's lovely. Just one thing more: How do we go?"
"I think we shall take the southern route and come back by some other."
"You mean—— Just which way is the southern route?"
"Down through New Orleans, Texas, and a bit of Mexico, then up through Southern California. Coming back, we will go through upper California and perhaps come home through the Canadian Rockies, but we will decide that when the time comes."
Nan drew a long sigh of satisfaction. "It is just too lovely for words. I may tell it, may I? It's all going to really happen?"