His wife encouraged the idea.

"George is just miserable if he's nothing to do," she explained to her
friends. "The doctor told me not to let him read too much or take up any
special mental hobby, but sketching strikes the happy medium. He
thoroughly enjoys pottering about in Mr. Castleton's studio, or making
drawings down on the quay. It's not arduous work and yet it keeps him
occupied. I like the house, and Fay can go to school near, so I expect
we're fixed here until next spring at any rate. If I get too bored I
shall run over to Paris and see my sister, but really I haven't been well
lately myself, and it will do me good to take a thorough rest for a
while."

Fay, who had formed an enthusiastic friendship with Beata and Romola, was
as pleased with Chagmouth as her parents. From the windows of Bella Vista
she could look across the harbour to The Haven, and had already arranged
a code of signals by which she might communicate with her chums. She was
a bright, amusing girl, rather grown-up for her age, and the constant
companion of her father and mother.

"Fay runs the house!" Mrs. Macleod would declare sometimes; but she was
immensely proud of her young daughter, and unwilling to thwart her in any
of the projects which she might care to take up. These, indeed, were
many. Fay dabbled in numerous hobbies, and her demands varied from
photographic materials to special sandals for toe dancing. She thoroughly
enjoyed life, and the freshness of her enthusiasm provided her parents
with a perpetual interest. To those friends who urged boarding-school her
mother was ready with the reply:

"Why must we be parted from her? She's her father's best tonic! She keeps