Mary Austin

The Lovely Lady Mary Austin

The walls of the Wonderful House rose up straight and shining, pale greenish gold as the slant sunlight on the orchard grass under the apple trees; the windows that sprang arching to the summer blueness let in the scent of the cluster rose at the turn of the fence, beginning to rise above the dusty smell of the country roads, and the evening clamour of the birds in Bloombury wood. As it dimmed and withdrew, the shining of the walls came out more clearly. Peter saw then that they were all of coloured pictures wrought flat upon the gold, and as the glow of it increased they began to swell and stir like a wood waking. They leaned out from the walls, looking all one way toward the increasing light and tap-tap of the Princess' feet along the halls. "Peter, oh, Peter!" The tap-tapping grew sharp and nearer like the sound of a crutch on a wooden veranda, and the voice was Ellen's. "Oh, Peter, you are always a-reading and a-reading!" Peter rolled off the long settle where he had been stretched and put the book in his pocket apologetically. "I was just going to quit," he said; "did you want anything, Ellen?" "The picnic is coming back; I thought we could go down to the turn to meet them. Mrs. Sibley said she would save me some things from the luncheon."