'They will have to carry out ours, though. I shall love settling how it is all to be--it will be such fun.' 'You wouldn't call it fun if you knew what it was like, I can tell you.' 'But I _do_ know. Mother and I rearranged most of the rooms at home only last year--so you see I have some experience. And what experience can _you_ have had, if you please?' Ella had a mental vision as she spoke of the house in Dawson Place when George lived with his mother and sisters--a house in which furniture and everything else were commonplace and _bourgeois_ to the last degree, and where nothing could have been altered since his boyhood; indeed she had often secretly pitied him for having to live in such surroundings, and admired the filial patience that had made him endure them so long. 'I've had my share, Ella, and I should be very sorry for you to have all the worry and bother I've been through over it!' 'But when, George? How? I don't understand.' 'Ah, that's my secret!' he said provokingly; 'and you know, Ella, if we began furnishing now, it would take no end of a time, with all these wonderful plans of yours, and--and I couldn't stand having to wait till next November for you--I couldn't do it!' 'Mother thinks the marriage need not be put off now,' said Ella simply, 'and we shall have six weeks till then; the house can be quite ready for us by the time we want it.' 'Six weeks!' he said impatiently, 'what's six weeks? You've no idea what these chaps are, Ella! And then there are all your own things to get, and they would take up most of your time. No, we should have had to put it off, whatever you may say. And that would mean another separation--for, of course, you would go away in August, and I should have to stay in town: the office wouldn't give me my fortnight twice over--honeymoon or no honeymoon!' Ella looked completely puzzled. 'But what are you trying to prove _now_, George?' 'I was only showing you that, even though you have come back earlier, we couldn't possibly have got things ready in time, if I hadn't----' but here he stopped. 'No, I want that to be a surprise for you, Ella; you'll see presently,' he added. Ella's delicate eyebrows contracted. 'I like to be prepared for my surprises, please, George. Tell me now.' They had turned up one of the quiet streets leading to the hill. They were so near the house that George thought he might abandon further mystery, not to mention that he was only too anxious to reveal his secret. 'Well, then, Ella, if you must have it,' he said triumphantly, 'the house is very nearly ready _now_--what do you think of that?' 'Do you mean that--that it is furnished, George?' 'Papered, painted, decorated, furnished--everything, from top to bottom! I thought that would surprise you, Ella!' 'I think,' she answered slowly, 'you might have told me you were doing it.'