“There’s the house,” announced Mr. Waters.
“That——?”
It was long and low and white and homely—yes! homely-looking—overgrown with purple wistaria, and swept at one end by a fountain of gold from an immense laburnum-tree. A deep, shady verandah was flung like a protecting arm about the waist of the house.
The late sunlight flashed on a scurry of something all goldeny-white, as there rushed out of the shade of this verandah what looked like a mix-up of several dogs and flying skirts....
“Girls?” I thought, as two slender, white-clad figures came towards me. “Who are these?”
“My sisters, Theodora and Blanche,” said the Governor quickly to me. “Down, Cariad! Down, sir,” to the little dog—there was only one of him, it appeared, when he stopped frisking for a moment about the man who was helping me to alight.
The taller of the two girls came forward first, murmured timidly, “So glad you’ve come!” held out both hands with an awkward, diffident little smile that was quite charming, and bent very shyly to kiss me. She was about eighteen, with fair hair, and features very cleanly-cut and something like her brother’s.
“I am Blanche,” she murmured. “This is Theo.”
“Theo,” seemed to be about fifteen. My first impression of her showed me a pair of long coltish legs and a round cowslip-bell of a head, covered with short yellow curls. She said nothing, but she looked, looked at me out of a pair of the largest and brightest brown eyes that I had ever met; they seemed almost the size of the goggles in a diver’s helmet, and I felt them following me devouringly as I was led into the hall.
“Here is Nancy, Mother,” called Mr. Waters.