e,
towards Southwell, and Sherwood Forest. There it was so lovely
and romantic. But out into the world meant out into the world.
Will Brangwen must become modern.

He bought, with his wife's money, a fairly large house in the
new, red-brick part of Beldover. It was a villa built by the
widow of the late colliery manager, and stood in a quiet, new
little side-street near the large church.

Ursula was rather sad. Instead of having arrived at
distinction they had come to new red-brick suburbia in a grimy,
small town.

Mrs. Brangwen was happy. The rooms were splendidly
large--a splendid dining-room, drawing-room and kitchen,
besides a very pleasant study downstairs. Everything was
admirably appointed. The widow had settled herself in lavishly.
She was a native of Beldover, and had intended to reign almost
queen. Her bathroom was white and silver, her stairs were of
oak, her chimney-pieces were massive and oaken, with bulging,
columnar supports.

"Good and substantial," was the keynote. But Ursula resented
the stout, inflated prosperity implied everywhere. She made her
father promise to chisel down the bulging oaken chimney-pieces,
chisel them flat. That sort of important paunch was very
distasteful to her. Her father was himself long and loosely
built. What had he to do with so much "good and substantial"
importance?

They bought a fair amount also of the widow's furniture. It
was in common good taste--the great Wilton carpet, the
large round table, the Chesterfield covered with glossy chintz
in roses and birds. It was all really very sunny and nice, with
large windows, and a view right across the shallow valley.

After all, they would be, as one of their acquaintances said,
among the elite of Beldover. They would represent culture. And
as there was no one of higher social importance than the
doctors, the colliery-managers, and the chemists, they would
shine, with their Della Robbia beautiful Madonna, their lovely
reliefs from Donatello, their reproductions from Botticelli.
Nay, the large photographs of the Primavera and the Aphrodite
and the Nativity in the dining-room, the ordinary
reception-room, would make dumb the mouth of Beldover.

And after all, it is better to be princess in Beldover than a
vulgar nobody in the country.

There was great preparation made for the removal of the whole
Brangwen family, ten in all. The house in Beldover was prepared,
the house in Cossethay was dismantled. Come the end of