Even the very old houses had been transformed by their owners much as The Trellis House had been transformed, into something to suit modern taste.

He told himself that he must begin looking again--looking in real dead earnest, going farther afield.
Absorbed in his thoughts, he had driven on and on, almost mechanically, till suddenly they came to four cross-roads.

He drew up under a sign-post, jumped out and struck a match, and as he read the painted words he realised, with vexation, that he had gone a good bit out of his way.

There was nothing for it now but to go on till they struck the Portsmouth Road.

It was the quietest hour of the twenty-four, and it was very unlikely they would meet with anyone who could put them right.
And then, while going up a lane, which he knew to be at any rate in the right direction, he came to a park gate.