’We must go back to the second, I think.  That one,—­in Crampton, don’t they call the suburb?  There were three sitting-rooms; don’t you remember how we laughed at the number compared with the three bed-rooms?  But I have planned it all.  The front room down-stairs is to be your study and our dining-room (poor papa!), for, you know, we settled mamma is to have as cheerful a sitting-room as we can get; and that front room up-stairs, with the atrocious blue and pink paper and heavy cornice, had really a pretty view over the plain, with a great bend of river, or canal, or whatever it is, down below.  Then I could have the little bed-room behind, in that projection at the head of the first flight of stairs—­over the kitchen, you know—­and you and mamma the room behind the drawing-room, and that closet in the roof will make you a splendid dressing-room.’

‘But Dixon, and the girl we are to have to help?’

’Oh, wait a minute.  I am overpowered by the discovery of my own genius for management.  Dixon is to have—­let me see, I had it once—­the back sitting-room.  I think she will like that.  She grumbles so much about the stairs at Heston; and the girl is to have that sloping attic over your room and mamma’s.  Won’t that do?’

’I dare say it will.  But the papers.  What taste!  And the overloading such a house with colour and such heavy cornices!’

’Never mind, papa!  Surely, you can charm the landlord into re-papering one or two of the rooms—­the drawing-room and your bed-room—­for mamma will come most in contact with them; and your book-shelves will hide a great deal of that gaudy pattern in the dining-room.’

’Then you think it the best?  If so, I had better go at once and call on this Mr. Donkin, to whom the advertisement refers me.  I will take you back to the hotel, where you can order lunch, and rest, and by the time it is ready, I shall be with you.  I hope I shall be able to get new papers.’

Margaret hoped so too, though she said nothing.  She had never come fairly in contact with the taste that loves ornament, however bad, more than the plainness and simplicity which are of themselves the framework of elegance.  Her father took her through the entrance of the hotel, and leaving her at the foot of the staircase, went to the address of the landlord of the house they had fixed upon.  Just as Margaret had her hand on the door of their sitting-room, she was followed by a quick-stepping waiter: 

’I beg your pardon, ma’am.  The gentleman was gone so quickly, I had no time to tell him.  Mr. Thornton called almost directly after you left; and, as I understood from what the gentleman said, you would be back in an hour, I told him so, and he came again about five minutes ago, and said he would wait for Mr. Hale.  He is in your room now, ma’am.’