They decided eventually on purchasing a house in the most artistic suburb of London, that which is known among Londoners as Northampton Park. They were lucky enough to find a house to be sold at a reasonable price in the main road of this quaint little village. It stood well back from the traffic, having a long garden between the gate and the entrance. The gate was rustic and wooden, and was decorated with an art copper plate of irregular shape, on which the name of the house was embossed in quaint letters extremely difficult to read—“Ye Dene.”
“Why,” asked Julia, when she and her sister were taken to see the new domicile, “why do you call our new house Ye Den? Is it a den?”
“Ye Dene, dearest—Ye Dene. It is old English spelling,” said Regina. “I think it is rather pretty, don’t you Alfie?”
“H’m, the house is nice enough, and you youngsters will enjoy the garden, which is far better than you have ever had before. I believe it costs a lot of money to alter the name of a house; in fact, I don’t know whether one is allowed to or not. I’ll find out.”
But, somehow, they took possession of their new home without finding out whether it was possible to alter the name thereof.
“What about headed paper, Queenie?” said Alfred, when they were at breakfast on the second morning after their entrance into the new domicile.
“Headed paper? Oh yes, we must have that, dear.”
“Well, will you stick to calling the house Ye Dene?”
“Well,” said Regina, “I went for a little turn yesterday, and I took note of all the houses and what their names were. I passed Charles Lodge and George Cottage, and The Poplars, The Elms, The Quarry, The Nook, Ingleside, High Elms, The Briars, and a dozen different variations of the same, such as Briar Cottage, High Elms Cottage, and so on; but I didn’t see any other house that seemed to be connected with this one. I rather like the name, and that queer, irregular-shaped copper plate will be a sort of landmark when our friends come from town to see us.”