"Or an apple, mother?"
"Yes, or anything."
"Well I suppose that will do," said Rotha slowly, "if you have money enough. I shouldn't think it was pleasant. Do the houses stand close together?"
"So close, that you cannot lay a pin between them."
"I should want to have very good neighbours, then."
Rotha was innocently touching point after point of doubt and dread in her mother's mind. Presently she touched another.
"I don't think it sounds pleasant, mother. Suppose we should not like it after we get there?"
Mrs. Carpenter did not answer.
"What then, mother? Would you come back again, if we did not like it there?"
"There would be no place to come to, here, any more, my child. I hope we shall find it comfortable where we are going."