When tea was over Miss Panton took Mysie away to the schoolroom, and General Macdonald took his wife all over the house. She had never been over it before, and was surprised at its spaciousness.
"Why, you could lodge fifty people here," she said, when they had finished going in and out of the quaint old rooms, all gloomily and sparsely furnished, except those in use. "We shall never be able to say we have no room for our friends."
Then she returned to the little suite of rooms that had been prepared for her. There was a little boudoir leading out of her bedroom which was now illumined by golden sunshine.
"I love a west room!" she exclaimed. "And oh, Hugh, what an exquisite enchanting view!"
Kneeling on the low window-seat, she leant out of the open window. She faced the loch in the distance, and the blue hills at the farther end of it. The woods in the glen were all in their freshest green, but now they seemed gleaming with gold. The colours and shadows on the silver waters of the loch were indescribably beautiful.
Rowena turned to meet her husband's eyes resting on her in grave content.
"Oh," she said, throwing out her hands, "isn't it easy to be good and happy with such a scene as this before one's eyes! I thought I remembered the beauties of our loch, but it has come to me with fresh force this evening. Hugh, I hope I shall live and die here. I never shall want to leave it."
Her rooms had been freshly papered and painted, and pretty fresh chintzes brightened the old furniture in them. "Miss Panton has helped us get them ready for you," said the General. "She and Mysie made a trip to Glasgow, and were most important and busy over it all. Nothing was too good. Nothing too expensive for you, so Mysie informed me."
"They have given me most charming rooms," said Rowena; then with an impulsive movement she clasped her arms round her husband's. "But what does anything matter, Hugh, as long as we are together? I feel I would be as jolly as a sandboy in an empty attic if you were by my side."
He could only smile at her. Speech was always difficult to him when he felt the deepest.