Page:The Lark - E Nesbit, 1922.djvu/155

156 Rather a big house? It was a very big house. A neglected big house. A very charming place to dream dreams about, when all that one knew was its pleasing outside shell, and the romantic suggestion of its half-seen dusky interior. But a house to live in? A house to use and make useful? As they went through room after room the spirits of the girls sank lower and lower, and when they came to the laundry and still-room and butler's pantry the house had come to seem less a Paradise than a problem. The girls became more and more silent, and Mr. Rochester, who, never voluble, had now almost the whole weight of the conversation on his shoulders, felt a growing conviction that his uncle's generosity had conferred not a benefit but a white elephant.

"Don't you," he said, when they had been through all the rooms and stood at last on the doorstep, "don't you like it?"

"Oh yes!" they both said, but quite without conviction.

"Of course we like it," Jane said.

"Very much, thank you, of course," said Lucilla.