“You shall work your will with them, dearest, as you have done with their master.”
He led her to his study and general den, a fine old room looking into the stable-yard, capacious, but gloomy.
“This is dreadful,” she cried, “no view, and ever so far from me! You must have the room next the morning-room, so that we can run in to each other, and talk at any moment.”
“That is one of the best bedrooms.”
“What of that! We can do without superfluous bedrooms; but I cannot do without you. This room of yours will make a visitor’s bedroom. If he or she doesn’t like it, he or she can go away, and leave us to ourselves, which we shall like ever so much better, shan’t we?” she asked, caressingly, as if life were going to be one long honeymoon.
Of course he assented, kissed the red frank lips, and assured her that for him bliss meant a perpetual tête-à-tête. Yes, his study should be next her boudoir; so that even in his busiest hours he should be able to turn to her for gladness—refreshing himself with her smiles after a troublesome interview with his bailiff—taking counsel with her about every change in his stable, sharing her interest in every new book.
“I will give orders about the change at once,” he said, “so that everything may be ready for us when you are tired of Cheriton.”
They lunched gaily in the garden. Nita hated eating indoors when the weather was good enough for an al fresco meal. They lunched under a Spanish chestnut that made a tent of foliage on the lawn in front of the house. They lingered over the meal, full of talk, finding a new world of conversation suggested by their surroundings; and then the greys were brought round to the hall door, and they started on the return journey.
It began to rain before they reached Cheriton, and the afternoon clouded over with a look of premature winter. No saunterings on the terrace this evening; no midnight meanderings among the cypresses and yews, the gleaming statues and dense green walls; as if they had been Romeo and Juliet, wedded and happy, in the garden at Verona. For the first time since the beginning of their honeymoon they were obliged to stay indoors.
“It is positively chilly,” exclaimed Juanita, as her maid carried off her damp mantle.