“What is it, then?”
“I don’t know—but it isn’t Starvecrow. I’ve spoilt Starvecrow. I’ve changed it, I’ve spoilt it—Vera’s people have spoilt it with their damned money. It isn’t Starvecrow. Do you remember how the orchard used to come right up to the side wall? They’ve cut it down and changed it into a garden. The orchard’s beyond the garden—then it doesn’t look so much like a farm. A country house doesn’t have an orchard just outside the drawing-room windows....”
He had left his chair, and was pacing up and down the room. His manner seemed stranger than ever, and Jenny felt a little frightened.
“I’m glad you don’t want me to change Fourhouses,” she said soothingly—“I must tell Mary what you’ve said.”
“But I do want you to change it,” he cried—“I can’t bear to see it as it is—what Starvecrow used to be.”
“Don’t be silly, Peter. Starvecrow is much better now than it ever used to be.”
He turned on her almost angrily—
“Goodbye.”
She felt glad he was going, and still more glad to hear her husband’s voice calling her from the yard.
“There’s Ben. Must you really be going, Peter?”