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 it would be necessary to build the cook into the dwelling, and admit the butcher and the baker by way of the chimney. It occurred to me that the problem of keeping a cook in the country would thus be very happily solved, but I contented myself with asking him to correct my errors, and let me have the plans at the earliest possible moment. The earliest possible moment, it appeared, was two weeks distant.

I was exceedingly annoyed at this, for I wanted the plans immediately, as one always wants what one is only recently able to afford, but my exasperation was as nothing compared with my dismay at Arbuthnot’s next remark.

“Where is the house to be?”

Will it be believed that this question had never entered my mind? It had been a veritable château en Espagne, a castle in the air. I stared at him blankly, and had not a word to say.