Millie's enthusiasm for her husband's plan increased each day. The picture which his halting phrases evoked for her, of a little farm very far away under Southern skies, charmed her more by reason of its novelty than either she or Tony quite understood. In the evenings of the following week, long after the footsteps overhead had ceased, they sat choosing the site of their house and building it. It was to be the exact opposite of their house of bondage. The windows should look out over rolling country, the simple decorations should be bright of colour, and through every cranny the sun should find its way. Millie's hopes, indeed, easily outran her husband's. She counted the house already built, and the door open for her coming. Colour and light bathed it in beauty. "There's my little fortune, Tony," she said, when once or twice he tried to check the leap of her anticipations; "that will provide the capital." "I knew you would offer it," Tony replied simply. "Your help will shorten our separation by a good deal. So I'll take half." "All!" cried Millie. "And what would you do when you wanted a new frock?" asked Tony, with a smile. Millie shrugged her shoulders. "I shall join you so soon," she said. It dawned upon Tony that she was making too little of the burden which she would be called upon to bear--the burden of dull lonely months in that great shabby house. "It will be a little while before I can send for you, Millie," he protested. But she paid no heed to the protest. She fetched her bank book and added up the figures. "I have three thousand pounds," she said. "I'll borrow half," he repeated. "Of course, I am only borrowing. Should things go wrong with me, you are sure to get it back in the end." They drove down to Millie's bank the next morning, and fifteen hundred pounds were transferred to his account. "Meanwhile," said Tony, as they came out of the door into Pall Mall, "we have not yet settled where our farm is to be. I think I will go and see Chase." "The man in Stepney Green?" Millie asked. "Yes. He's the man to help us." Tony called a cab and drove off. It was late in the afternoon when he returned, and he had no opportunity to tell his wife the results of his visit before dinner was announced. Millie was in a fever to hear his news. Never, even in this house, had an evening seemed so long. Sir John sat upright in his high-backed chair, and, as was his custom, bade her read aloud the evening paper. But that task was beyond her. She pleaded a headache and escaped. It seemed to her that hours passed before Tony rejoined her. She had come to dread with an intense fear that some hindrance would, at any moment, stop their plan. "Well?" she asked eagerly, when Tony at last came into their sitting-room. "It's to be horses in Kentucky," answered Tony. "Farming wants more knowledge and a long apprenticeship; but I know a little about horses." "Splendid!" cried Millie. "You will go soon?" "In a week. A week is all I need."