But you're better-looking, Muriel." Muriel brushed aside the subject of her looks.
"What made you settle in Priorsford ?" she asked.
"Well, we came out first to stay at the Hydro--you were away at school then--and your father took a great fancy to the place.

He was making money fast, and we always had a thought of buying a place.

But there was nothing that just suited us.

We thought it would be too dull to be right out in the country, at the end of a long drive--exclusive you know, but terribly dreary, and then your father said, 'Build a house to suit ourselves in Priorsford, and we'll have shops and a station and everything quite near.' His idea was to have a house as like a hydropathic as possible, and to call it The Towers.

'A fine big red house, Aggie,' he often said to me, 'with plenty of bow-windows and turrets and a hothouse off the drawing-room and a sweep of gravel in front and a lot of geraniums and those yellow flowers--what d'you call 'em ?--and good lawns, and a flower garden and a kitchen garden and a garage, and what more d'you want ?' Well, well, he got them all, but he didn't live long to enjoy them.