"I've seen enough of this moated grange," cried Patty. "Come on, girls,
we're going back to tea, right, straight, smack off."

"There's no pleasing some folks," grumbled Ethel. "Here's an ancestral
pile only waiting for somebody to ancestralise it. You could make it one
of the Historic Homes of Vernondale, and you won't even consider it for
a minute."

"I'll consider it for a minute," said Patty, "if that will do you
any good, but not a bit longer; and as the minute is nearly up, I
move we start."




CHAPTER IV

BOXLEY HALL


After consultation with various real estate agents, and after due
consideration of the desirable houses they had to offer, Mr. Fairfield
came to the conclusion that the Bigelow house, which Marian had
suggested, was perhaps the most attractive of any.

And so, one afternoon, a party of very interested people went over to
look at it.

The procession was headed by Patty and Marian, followed by Mr. Fairfield
and Aunt Alice, while Frank and his father brought up the rear. But as