"Nurse has plenty to do without colourwashing the nursery. Besides it's not worth while now, when——"
Minnie stopped abruptly, looking rather conscious.
"Not worth while? Not when the children would adore it?"
"I didn't mean that. I daresay they'd like it well enough."
"Then what did you mean?"
"Something I can't tell you. Don't bother, Lesbia, you can't know everything in this house. It's no use your putting a dado here. Perhaps some day, who knows?—your stencils may come in useful on some other walls."
Minnie spoke with a shade of embarrassment. Her young stepsister-in-law was gazing at her critically.
"How you love mysteries," remarked Lesbia. "All I can say is that, if you're thinking of removing, you'll find it a business to get another house unless you buy it, and Paul said this morning that nothing would induce him to buy property at the top tide of the market. The Morwoods have been trying to remove for two years, and can't hear of a house anywhere."
"The Morwoods' affairs have nothing to do with ours," remarked Minnie, closing the conversation firmly.
It was a blow to Lesbia not to be allowed to try her skill at decorating the nursery. She thought it highly unreasonable of Minnie. She stencilled some of the animals on pieces of paper and fastened them with drawing-pins on to the walls in a corner of the room, to show how nice the effect would be, but the children's inquisitive little fingers pulled at the edges of the paper and soon tore them down. In her annoyance she confided the whole of the affair to Marion, who was breezily sympathetic.