When they had looked over the house they wandered over the garden and grounds. Here Rowena saw much that could be improved, and longed to set to work at once.
"Do you give me carte blanche, Hugh, to make a lovely garden here? The ground would lend itself to my schemes; and I honestly enjoy having a wealth of flowers round any house."
"You can do as you like, if you can persuade Andrew to carry out your schemes. I think that will be the difficulty."
"I feel afraid of no one," said Rowena lightly. "I know Scotch gardeners are generally very formidable personages; but I will try my powers of persuasion upon Andrew."
They dined later on in the long dining-room, which held on its walls portraits of several generations of Macdonalds, and then Mysie appeared again, and insisted upon taking Rowena out into the garden again to see some of her pet nooks and haunts. She was introduced to the stables and to the dogs; even the poultry-yard had to be visited, and the little girl's bed-time came too soon for her.
"I haven't shown you half. Will you come with me to the Fairies' Knoll up the glen to-morrow? Dad won't believe in them. It's the only place I don't like him to come to with me. If an unbeliever is with you, you never see the little people. You and I will go quite by ourselves, eh?"
"Indeed we will, Flora," was the laughing response; and then she was hugged and kissed.
"Good night, Mother! There, I've said it, and I'll say it a hundred times a day till I get quite accustomed to it. It does seem funny at first, you know. I told Dad there must be no step about it, not one, there's not a single step between us, is there?"
"Not one, I hope," asserted Rowena.
When Mysie had disappeared she turned to her husband, who had been very silent during his child's chatter.