"Greenus is more homelike, Gert. What do you say, Mother?" He laughed almost gayly at Maria. The eldest daughter was amazed at the change that seemed to be coming over her father. In the dismal days of drudgery and gloomy terrorism at the public house in Waterloo Square which now seemed so far away in the past, there was not a trace of this large and rich geniality. Prosperity, power, worldly success must have mellowed her father as well as enlarged him. He seemed so much bigger now, so much riper, he seemed to care more for others. Ethel and Gertrude were quite put into the shade by the force and the heartiness of Josiah, but Mrs. Doctor was not one lightly to play second fiddle to any member of her own family. "I hear," she said, pitching her voice upon an almost perilous note of fashion--there was even a suspicion of a drawl which brought an involuntary curl to Melia's lip--"that young Nixey, the architect, has been recommended for the M.C." "Has he so?" Josiah's eye lighted up over his suspended teacup. "I've always said there was something in that young Nixey. And I'm not often mistaken. He designed that row of cottages I built down Bush Lane." "A row of cottages in Bush Lane, have you, Josiah?" said Aunt Gerty with an air of statesmanlike interest. "You seem to be what they call going into bricks and mortar." "You bet I am--for some time now. And bricks and mortar are not going to get less in value if this war keeps on, take it from me." "I suppose not," said Mrs. Doctor Cockburn, a judge of values. "I've one regret." It was not like Josiah to harbor regrets of any kind, and Aunt Gerty visibly adjusted her mind to hear something memorable. "That young Nixey's as smart as paint. I nearly let him have the contract for this house. In some ways he might have suited us better." "But this house is splendid," said Gerty with flagrant optimism. She knew in her heart that the house was too splendid. "Young Nixey's idea was something neater, more in the Mossop style. I didn't see at the time, so I got Rawlins to do it to my own design. Of course, what I didn't like about Nixey was that he would have it that he knew better than I did, and I'm not sure----" Josiah hovered on the brink of a very remarkable admission. "I don't agree, Josiah. This house is almost perfect." The specious Gertrude was amazed that he of all men should be so near a confession that he might have been wrong. Dark influences were at work in him evidently. "I agree with you, Father." Mrs. Doctor had nothing of Gerty's finesse. "The Gables is so refined, a house for a gentleman." "Don't know about that," Josiah frowned. "Never heard of a house being refined. Comes to that, this place is good enough for me, any time." If he went so far as to own that he might have been wrong it was clearly the duty of others to hasten to contradict him. "But The Gables is more compact. More comfort somehow, and less show."