Mr. Maxwell had bought the Laburnums with the two thousand pounds which had come to his wife on the death of her father. It was a large house, with plenty of rooms, but Grace and Nina and Hal were already in existence, and, as Mr. Maxwell said in his usual style of a proverb already existing: “Three’s a beginning, but seven’s a family”--so the largeness of the house hardly mattered. He and Florrie had the best bedroom, with dressing-room attached, and Grace and Nina shared a room, of course, and Hal slept with Nurse; and then there were a couple of spare-rooms, a tiny “landing” room, a day-nursery, and a double-fronted attic, and the servants’ room. Mr. Maxwell had his study, and downstairs were the dining-room and drawing-room and Mrs. Maxwell’s own sitting-room; also a small conservatory. Round the back and sides of the house was a garden that had surrendered its pleasing jungle-effect to Mr. Maxwell’s persuasion, without ever quite achieving the trim cultivation that he desired. It was really just the right sort and size of house for the Maxwells, except for the discovery that it did not hold a single laburnum; but Mr. Maxwell soon had them planted firmly on either side of the front door, because, although thin, he was a bluff man and scornful of pretension--he disapproved of his neighbour in the avenue who, never having fought in the Boer War, lived in a house called “The Kopje.” “The Kopje! Ridiculous! Ha ha.” But it never struck him that it might be as exquisitely ridiculous for a man who _had_ fought in the Boer war to live in a house called “The Kopje.” Then came Ursula, and the twin boys, Bunny and Ronald.... Hal into one of the spare-rooms now, and Ursula in the dressing-room off her parents’ bedroom, so that her mother could keep an eye on her while she was still small, as Nurse had as much as she could manage with the twins. Ronald died, from an attack of measles that Mrs. Maxwell refused to coddle--she was the sort of mother who wants all her youngsters to grow up sturdy, and says that measles will “do ’em good--clear the blood... and it’s better for ’em to have it now than later.” She’s a much better sort of mother than the over-anxious kind, only sometimes a child dies. Lottie ... and lastly, William. But in the meanwhile had occurred the financial slump, and the installation of Aunt Lavvy in the best bedroom. Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell moved into the last of the spare-rooms, Nurse had charge of the two youngest, and Bunny shared with Hal, to his enormous contentment. The extra landing bedroom was given to them for a den to romp in.