"The rascally agent who sold it to me said it was," says MacGregor, "but I wouldn't believe a word of his on any subject. 'Did I ask you for an old house, at all?' I tells him. For what I wanted was just a place where I could live quiet, and maybe have me game of golf when I wanted it. But here I've gone off me game; and, besides, the country's no place to live quiet in. I should be in town, so I should, like any decent white man. I've a mind to look up a place at once. Try another scone, young lady." So it was long after six before we got away, and the last thing MacGregor does is to load Vee down with a whole armful of lilac blossoms. I suppose Mr. and Mrs. Robert thought we'd been makin' a wholesale raid when they saw us comin' in with the plunder. Mrs. Robert almost turns pale. "Mercy!" says she. "You don't mean to say you got all those from our neighbor's bushes, do you?" "Uh-huh," says I. "We've been mesmerizin' MacGregor. He's as tame a Scot now as you'd want to see." They could hardly believe it, and when they heard about our havin' tea with him they gasped. "Of all persons!" says Mrs. Robert. "Why, he has been glaring at us for a year, and sending us the most bristling messages. I don't understand." Mr. Robert, though, winks knowin'. "Some of Torchy's red-headed diplomacy, I suspect," says he. "I must engage you to make our peace with MacGregor." That's all we saw of him, though, durin' our stay. For one thing, we was kept fairly busy. I never knew you could have so much fun in the country. Ever watch a bunch of young ducks waddlin' about? Say, ain't they a circus! And them fluffy little chicks squabblin' over worms. Honest, I near laughed myself sick. Vee was for luggin' some of 'em home to the apartment. But she was thrilled over 'most everything out there, from the fat robins on the lawn to the new leaves on the trees. And, believe me, when we gets back to town again, our studio apartment seems cramped and stuffy. We talked over everything we'd seen and done at the Ellinses'. "That's really living, isn't it?" says Vee. "Why not," says I, "with a twenty-room house, and grounds half as big as Central Park?" "I know," says Vee. "But a little place like Mr. Shinn's would be large enough for us." "I expect it would," says I. "You don't really think you'd like to live out there, do you, though?" "Wouldn't I!" says Vee, her eyes sparklin'. "I'd love it." "What would you do all day alone?" I suggests. "I'd raise ducks and chickens and flowers," says Vee. "And Leon could have a garden. Just think!" Yep--I thought. I must have kept awake hours that night, tryin' not to. And the more I mulled it over---- Well, in the mornin' I had a talk with Mr. Robert, after which I got busy with the long-distance 'phone. I didn't say anything much at lunch about what I'd done, but around three o'clock I calls up the apartment. "I'm luggin' home someone to dinner," says I. "Guess who?" Vee couldn't. "MacGregor the grouch," says I.