“Awfully pretty,” replied her companion, “though the floor might be better for playing. There are some big cracks. Do you like tennis, Miss Cholmondeley?”
“Oof, yes!” cried the girl eagerly; “but I have not had much practice this summer. Effie was ill, and I was not going to parties. Do you play well, Mr. Dumaresq?”
“No, not well according to the modern standard; but perhaps you will condescend to play with me. But come along; I want to see what that little building is up there. In there is the bungalow, a sort of dependence of the hotel. The Reids offered it to us as an independent home of our own, but as Guy is rather lame and weak, and we should have to come up to the hotel for meals, we declined; there are too many steps. But it is a pretty place; such a sheer drop to the sea below. It must be like living in a ship’s cabin. Now I want to see how to get to that other building. I think there’s a sort of a path round here. I’ve a fancy it may be the billiard-room from my aunt’s description of the place.”
A billiard-room it was—half of it, at least; the other half was quite empty save for a piano and some chairs round the walls.
“It looks made for a dance!” cried Sheila, pirouetting round. “Are all hotels as perfectly delightful as this?”
The sun had just dipped behind the hills, and the shadows were coming on apace.
“I suppose it gets dark pretty soon here,” said Ronald. “Let us go back to the house now. We must finish the garden to-morrow. There is plenty more to see.”
Sheila had sprays of roses and heliotrope in her hands as she ran upstairs to Effie. A lamp had been brought in, and the big, lofty room looked quite gay.
“Oh, what roses!” cried Effie in real delight. “Aren’t they splendid? I am going to like this place immensely, Sheila, and we have such a good plan. Susan isn’t to have the big room next door; it’s to be turned into a sitting-room for us. Mrs. Reid will get it done to-morrow, and Susan will sleep in a little room close by; then this great turret place will be all our own, and we can have our friends up to tea and all that sort of thing. I want to get to know the Dumaresqs better. You get on with them very well, don’t you, Sheila?”
“They are very kind to me. I think they were sorry for me on ship-board because I was alone at first. Lady Dumaresq is lovely, and the little boy is so sweet, and Miss Adene has always been like a friend.”