niceness
in people whatever they were like. But girls don't really know when
fellows are muffs."

"I don't know about Eustace," said Brenda, "but Nesta looked
fearfully long-legged and queerly dressed in those snapshots Aunt
Dorothy did."

"I hope she won't want to kiss me when she says 'How-do-you-do,'"
said Herbert; "that is all I mind about her. But if that kid
Eustace fancies he is going to hang around with me perpetually, he
will find himself mistaken. I couldn't be bothered."

"But we shall have to look after them properly, and treat them just
as we would any other visitors," Brenda said anxiously; "we can't
sort of leave them to themselves, you know."

"Of course," said Herbert rather testily; "what do you take me for?
I hope I shan't behave like a cad in my own house! But that is just
the nuisance of it: they'll be visitors without being visitors, and
they'll be here such an awful time. Thank goodness, there will be
term time to look forward to!"

"If only Aunt Dorothy--" began Brenda.

"Oh, shut up," said Herbert roughly. Then added more gently, "I
think the carriage has just turned in at the park gate. Listen."

All through the voyage Eustace and Nesta had been picturing this
very day--this very hour. The parting with Bob and the farewell to
home necessarily dropped into the background of their thoughts; the
foreground was full of expectations. Now that they could realize
they were on their way to the fulfilment of what had originally
been the dream of their lives, all the old feeling of longing
possessed them. At last they would see England! At last they would
know what real "home" was like--their mother's old home, to which
she had given them such a sense of belonging by all the tales they
knew so well!

That England was not what they expected was natural enough. Mrs.
Orban had never pretended to describe England, but simply her own
particular corner of it on the borders of Wales. Leaving the ship
was all bustle and rush, but during the long train journey there
was plenty of time to look about, and English scenery struck all
three children as most peculiar.

"Why, it's just like a map!" exclaimed Peter, as he knelt up at a
window. "I'm certain if I was up in a balloon it would look like a
map with all those funny little hedges."

"I think it would look like a patchwork quilt," said Nesta.
"Father, why do people mark their land out into such funny little
bits?"

So spoke the children, used t