"Alicia," said I, when we had had a cup of tea made over our spirit
lamp, and firelight and lamplight made the place less depressing and
eerie, "Alicia, that terrible old woman has played me, like an ace
up her sleeve, against her neighbors and her family. She has left me
a house that needs everything done to it except to burn it down and
rebuild it, and a garden that will have to be cleared out with
dynamite. And she has seen to it that I have the preconceived
prejudice of all Hyndsville."

Alicia's pretty, soft lips closed firmly.

"Here we are and here we stay!" she said determinedly. "Nobody's
been disinherited to make room for us. Sophy, in all our lives we
have never had a chance to make a real home. Well, then, Hynds House
is our chance, and I'd just like to see anybody take it away from
us!"

"Up, Guards, and at 'em!" said I, smiling at her tone. I am slower
than she, but even more stubborn, as the English are.

"Tell your admiral that if he gets in my way I will blow his ships
out of the water!" said Alicia, gallantly.

But when we went up-stairs, we took good care to lock our door, and
bolt it, too. Alicia said her prayers kneeling by the gate-legged
table, snuggled into bed between the clean sheets we had brought
with us, tucked a china dog under her chin, and went to sleep like
the child that she was. I said the Shepherd's Psalm and went to
sleep, too.