“How generous he is!” cried my wife.  Margaret did not reply, but she looked at the check, and there were tears in her eyes.

XV

The Arbuser cottage at Lenox was really a magnificent villa.  Richardson had built it.  At a distance it had the appearance of a mediaeval structure, with its low doorways, picturesque gables, and steep roofs, and in its situation on a gentle swell of green turf backed by native forest-trees it imparted to the landscape an ancestral tone which is much valued in these days.  But near to, it was seen to be mediaevalism adapted to the sunny hospitality of our summer climate, with generous verandas and projecting balconies shaded by gay awnings, and within spacious, open to the breezes, and from its broad windows offering views of lawns and flower-beds and ornamental trees, of a great sweep of pastures and forests and miniature lakes, with graceful and reposeful hills on the horizon.

It was, in short, the modern idea of country simplicity.  The passion for country life, which has been in decadence for nearly half a century, has again become the fashion.  Nature, which, left to itself, is a little ragged, not to say monotonous and tiresome, is discovered to be a valuable ally for aid in passing the time when art is able to make portions of it exclusive.  What the Arbusers wanted was a simple home in the country, and in obtaining it they were indulging a sentiment of returning to the primitive life of their father, who had come to the city from a hill farm, and had been too busy all his life to recur to the tastes of his boyhood.  At least that was the theory of his daughters; but the old gentleman had a horror of his early life, and could scarcely be dragged away from the city even in the summer.  He would no doubt have been astonished at the lofty and substantial stone stables, the long range of greenhouses, and at a farm which produced nothing except lawns and flower-beds, ornamental fields of clover, avenues of trees, lawn-tennis grounds, and a few Alderneys tethered to feed among the trees, where their beauty would heighten the rural and domestic aspect of the scene.  The Arbusers liked to come to this place as early as possible to escape the society exactions of the city.  That was another theory of theirs.  All their set in the city met there for the same purpose.

Margaret was welcomed with open arms.

“We have been counting the days,” said the elder of the sisters.  “Your luggage has come, your rooms are all ready, and your coachman, who has been here some days, says that the horses need exercise.  Everybody is here, and we need you for a hundred things.”

“You are very kind.  It is so charming here.  I knew it would be, but I couldn’t bear to shorten my visit in Brandon.”

“Your aunt must miss you very much.  Is she well?”

“Perfectly.”

“Wouldn’t she have come with you?  I’ve a mind to telegraph.”