It was to choose a house.

Owing to my father's already failing health, we had left our own old home more than a year before, and till now we had been living in a temporary house in South Wales.

But my father did not like the neighbourhood, and fancied the climate did not suit him, and besides this we could not have had the house after the following April, had we wished it.

So there had been great discussions about what we should do, where we should go rather, and much consultation of advertisement sheets and agents' lists.

Already Mary had set off on several fruitless expeditions in quest of delightful 'residences' which turned out very much the reverse.