’Well, Ursula, how do you like your rooms?  Oh yes, there are two cups and saucers,’ as I looked inquiringly at the table, ’because Mrs. Barton expects me to remain to tea.  She is frying ham and eggs at the present moment; I hope you do not mind such homely country fare; but to-morrow you will be your own housekeeper.’

I assured Uncle Max that I had fallen in love with the White Cottage, and that I liked Mrs. Barton excessively, that my bedroom was especially cosy and was most comfortably furnished.  ’You will see how pretty this room will look when I put up my new curtains and pictures,’ I went on; ’it is a little bare at present, but it will soon have a more furnished appearance.  I mean to be so busy to-morrow settling all my treasures.’  And I spoke with so much animation that Uncle Max smiled at what he called my youthful enthusiasm.

‘You may be as busy as you like all day,’ he returned, in his pleasant way, ’so that you come up to the vicarage in the afternoon to see Mrs. Drabble.  Lawrence will be out:  that fellow always is out,’—­in a humorous tone of vexation.  ’He makes himself so confoundedly agreeable that people are always asking him to dinner:  he is terribly secular, is Lawrence, but he is young and will mend.  Come up to the vicarage and dine with me, Ursula; I want you to taste Mrs. Drabble’s pancakes:  they are food for angels, as Lawrence always says.’

I accepted the invitation a little regretfully, for it seemed hard to leave my hermitage the first evening; but then Uncle Max had been so good to me that it would never do to disappoint him, and, as Mr. Tudor would be out, we should be very cosy together.

Mrs. Barton brought in the ham and eggs at this moment, and I sat down before my gay little tea-tray, marvelling secretly at the scarlet flamingo.  There were plenty of homely delicacies on the table,—­hot cakes and honey, and a basket of brown-and-yellow pippins.  Uncle Max shook his head and pretended the hot cakes would ruin his digestion, but he enjoyed them all the same, and made an excellent meal.

We sat for a long time talking over the fire, chiefly of Lesbia and Jill, for he took a warm interest in them both; but about eight o’clock he remembered he had an engagement, and went off rather hurriedly, and I went upstairs and unpacked one of my boxes, and arranged my clothes in the chest of drawers and in the big, roomy cupboard.

When the church clock struck ten, I went down again in search of hot water.  At the sound of my footstep, Mrs. Barton came out in the passage and invited me into the kitchen.

‘There is only Nat there at his books,’ she said, in her plaintive voice; ’he works late sometimes, though I tell him he uses up candle and firelight.  Please make yourself at home, Miss Garston; we shall always be pleased to see you in our kitchen, when you like to pop in.’