e the sunshine.

At the back of the square gallery she threw open another door. "This is
your other room," she said; and Penelope, who was standing by her, gave
one long, low cry of pleasure, and was across the room in a moment.

"Oh!" she gasped, "oh my!" She could not find words to express the
feelings which rushed over her as her eyes fell on the view without--the
pretty garden full of flowers, enclosed within a stone wall, and beyond
that the old brown moor stretching far and wide in every direction, until
it broke like a brown sea about the foot of the distant hills. Here and
there were lesser tors and piles of rock, and little footpaths through the
heather, and pools which gleamed with a cold light in the light of the
evening sky. It was wild, weird, fascinating.

"I think you, at any rate, should have this room," said Miss Ashe,
smiling, well pleased at Penelope's delight. The rest of the children
were looking interestedly about them. "As this has a colder aspect I
thought it should be made to look warmer," Miss Ashe explained; and indeed
the warm red carpet, and the dark-red roses nestling against deep-green
leaves on the walls, gave it a very cosy, comfortable look.

Esther felt soothed and calmed already. The air of comfort and neatness,
the good taste that met them on all sides, gave her such a sense of
pleasure and ease as she had never known before. This was just how things
should look, how she had always wanted them to look, and had never been
able to get them to, or make the others understand.

"How do you think you will manage?" said Miss Ashe, turning to Esther.
"Don't you think you and the baby here had better be together in the other
room, so that you may be able to help her a little? I have only the one
servant yet, so we must manage to do as best we can for the time.
I think these two," laying a hand on Angela and Penelope, "had better stay
here;" a plan they all heartily agreed with. Then, after providing them
with brushes and combs until they could unpack their own, Miss Ashe went
away, and left them to prepare themselves for tea.

And here, perhaps, it would be as well to give you some idea of what the
four little Carrolls were like at this time, for one's first question
generally, on hearing any one spoken of, is, "Is she pretty?" or, "What is
she like?" and quite naturally, too, for people only seem real to us when
we are able to picture them in our own minds as they really are.