last winter while she was with us in Wales.  So you see we must do something, and I have the plan of such a pretty place, which I want to call Stoneleigh Cottage after my old home.  Your room and Aunt Hannah’s are to be the pleasantest of all, with a bow-window and fire-place in both, and there is to be a fire-place in the hall, which is to be finished in oak, with a wide staircase and a tall clock on the landing, and the windows are to have little colored panes of glass at the top, and the floors are to be inlaid and waxed, with rugs of matting instead of carpets, as we want everything cool for summer, and we will have a big piazza where we can have tea or breakfast, or even a dance, if we like.  Won’t that be nice?”

Bessie had talked very rapidly, with a feeling that she did not have the sympathy of her hearers.  She had conceived the idea of pulling down the old house and building a new one while she was in Wales, alleging to herself as one reason that both Hannah and Grey would enjoy themselves better under a roof which did not cover a grave, while the other reason was not then quite clear enough in her own mind to be put into words, but she had said nothing to any one until the morning of the day when she broached the subject to his father.  Together with Grey, she had gone over the old house, which, from having been shut up so long, seemed more dilapidated than ever.  But Grey opposed her plan, and Hannah opposed it, while Mr. Jerrold grew hot and cold by turns, as he thought what might possibly be brought to light if the house were removed and any excavations made, as there might be.  As if divining what was in his mind, Bessie continued: 

“I do not mean to have the new house just where this one stands, but farther to the right.  We can fill up the cellar with the debris, and have loads of earth brought in and make a kind of plateau, with it terrace all around it.  We can make that plateau so lovely with shrubs, and flowers, and grass.  I once saw one like what I have in mind, at a country place in England, and in one corner, under a willow tree, was a little grave; the only son of the house had been buried there, and I thought it so lovely to have a monument of flowers, and trees and singing birds.”

Locking into the blue eyes fixed so earnestly upon him, Mr. Jerrold read what she meant, and said to her: 

“You shall do as you like; if Hannah does not object.”

Hannah, too, began to get a glimpse of the truth, and so did Grey, and when she said, “You are all willing—­it is settled?” they answered yes, and Grey went with her to choose the site for the new house, which in her impetuosity, she declared should be commenced at once saying she would remain in Allington during the summer and superintend it herself.

It was Bessie who choose the site, to the right of the old building and near a great flat rock which she said she meant to have in a corner of the yard, as it would be such a nice play-house for children.