It took two days to drown that kitten, but now I'm up again and out, and to-day I went to Tarnley, with the permission of my gracious keeper, 'if I drove both there and back.' As it was sunny, and mercies are strictly rationed just at present, I accepted the offer and went to all the places I had meant to go to first, did a lot of shopping, and finally interviewed one of the house agents.
I was quite clear and definite in my requirements—I wanted to buy an old house; so of course every one he sent me to was red brick, modern, and to let.
I went home and groused to Ross, and announced that the only really satisfactory way to find a suitable dwelling was to walk the length and breadth of England, and when you saw the house you wanted knock at the door and beguile the owner into selling it to you, and that I intended to adopt this plan and to begin my pilgrimage shortly.
Ross, as usual, was rude about it.
'Haven't you discovered all these years, you little ass, that agents are a race apart?' said he; 'their minds are controlled by the law of opposites. Now your heart, Meg, is set on a house, ancient and mellowed with years, with long, low rooms and beams, and an old-world garden full of wallflowers, phlox and herbs and perennials and——'
'But, Ross——'
'Don't interrupt me, Meg; consequently you must tell the agent that you desire a new up-to-date dwelling with a small garden overlooked on either side (since we are cheerful souls and love the company of our fellows). Then they would give you orders to view old houses with little latticed windows and winding stairs. Methinks if you said you must have lincrusta and white enamel you might even get oak panelling.'
After dinner Ross departed upstairs, said he had things to do and then he was going to bed.
To bed? To walk his room all night, with Brown, unbeknown to my brother, pacing up and down the passage.
I sat by my fire and read. At one o'clock, Ross knocked me up. As I went into the corridor Brown barred his door.