The
house was no larger than the comfortable home of the Gray family, but
its closed blinds and empty white-pillared portico gave it a deserted
air. The grounds about it were not indicative of present day, fastidious
landscape gardening, but suggested an old-time country gentleman's
estate, sufficiently kept up to prevent wild and alien growth, though
needing the supervision of an interested owner to suggest beneficial
changes here and there.
"It's a beautiful old place, isn't it?" Richard looked to Roberta for
confirmation, and saw it in her kindling eyes.
"It has always been our whole family's ideal of a home," she said. "Ours
is so much nearer the centre of things, we haven't the acres we should
like, and whenever we have driven past this place we have looked
longingly at it. Since General and Mrs. Armitage died, and their family
became scattered, father has often said that he was watching anxiously
to see it come on the market, for there was no place he more coveted the
right ownership for, even though he couldn't think of living here
himself. It seems such a pity when homes like this go to people who
don't appreciate them, and alter and spoil them.
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