They and I | Page 8

house--a room that makes me
shudder every time I see it through the open door; and the door, in spite
of all I can say, generally is wide open--"
"I'm not untidy," said Robin, "not really. I know where everything is in
the dark--if people would only leave them alone."

"You are. You're about the most untidy girl I know," said Dick.
"I'm not," said Robin; "you don't see other girls' rooms. Look at yours
at Cambridge. Malooney told us you'd had a fire, and we all believed
him at first."
"When a man's working--" said Dick.
"He must have an orderly place to work in," suggested Robin.
Dick sighed. "It's never any good talking to you," said Dick. "You don't
even see your own faults."
"I can," said Robin; "I see them more than anyone. All I claim is
justice."
"Show me, Veronica," I said, "that you are worthy to possess a room.
At present you appear to regard the whole house as your room. I find
your gaiters on the croquet lawn. A portion of your costume--an article
that anyone possessed of the true feelings of a lady would desire to
keep hidden from the world--is discovered waving from the staircase
window."
"I put it out to be mended," explained Veronica.
"You opened the door and flung it out. I told you of it at the time," said
Robin. "You do the same with your boots."
"You are too high-spirited for your size," explained Dick to her. "Try to
be less dashing."
"I could also wish, Veronica," I continued, "that you shed your back
comb less easily, or at least that you knew when you had shed it. As for
your gloves--well, hunting your gloves has come to be our leading
winter sport."
"People look in such funny places for them," said Veronica.
"Granted. But be just, Veronica," I pleaded. "Admit that it is in funny

places we occasionally find them. When looking for your things one
learns, Veronica, never to despair. So long as there remains a corner
unexplored inside or outside the house, within the half-mile radius,
hope need not be abandoned."
Veronica was still gazing dreamily into the fire.
"I suppose," said Veronica, "it's reditty."
"It's what?" I said.
"She means heredity," suggested Dick--"cheeky young beggar! I
wonder you let her talk to you the way she does."
"Besides," added Robin, "as I am always explaining to you, Pa is a
literary man. With him it is part of his temperament."
"It's hard on us children," said Veronica.
We were all agreed--with the exception of Veronica--that it was time
Veronica went to bed. As chairman I took it upon myself to closure the
debate.
CHAPTER II

"Do you mean, Governor, that you have actually bought the house?"
demanded Dick, "or are we only talking about it?"
"This time, Dick," I answered, "I have done it."
Dick looked serious. "Is it what you wanted?" he asked.
"No, Dick," I replied, "it is not what I wanted. I wanted an old-
fashioned, picturesque, rambling sort of a place, all gables and ivy and
oriel windows."
"You are mixing things up," Dick interrupted, "gables and oriel

windows don't go together."
"I beg your pardon, Dick," I corrected him, "in the house I wanted, they
do. It is the style of house you find in the Christmas number. I have
never seen it anywhere else, but I took a fancy to it from the first. It is
not too far from the church, and it lights up well at night. 'One of these
days,' I used to say to myself when a boy, 'I'll be a clever man and live
in a house just like that.' It was my dream."
"And what is this place like?" demanded Robin, "this place you have
bought."
"The agent," I explained, "claims for it that it is capable of
improvement. I asked him to what school of architecture he would say
it belonged; he said he thought that it must have been a local school,
and pointed out--what seems to be the truth--that nowadays they do not
build such houses."
"Near to the river?" demanded Dick.
"Well, by the road," I answered, "I daresay it may be a couple of
miles."
"And by the shortest way?" questioned Dick.
"That is the shortest way," I explained; "there's a prettier way through
the woods, but that is about three miles and a half."
"But we had decided it was to be near the river," said Robin.
"We also decided," I replied, "that it was to be on sandy soil, with a
south-west aspect. Only one thing in this house has a south-west aspect,
and that's the back door. I asked the agent about the sand. He advised
me, if I wanted it in any quantity, to get