He felt ashamed of himself for not being more enthusiastic as he searched records and helped to locate the owner of that particular spot.

To John, there was a new tone in Peter's voice, a possessive light in his eyes as he studied the location, and made excursions in several directions, to fix in his mind the exact position of the land.
He had indicated what he considered the topographical location for a house--stood on it facing the valley, and stepped the distance suitably far away to set a garage and figured on a short private road down to the highway.

He very plainly was deeply prepossessed with a location John Gilman blamed himself for not having found first.

Certainly nature had here grown and walled a dream garden in which to set a house of dreams.
So, past midnight, Gilman stood in the sunshine, looking at the face of the girl he had asked to marry him and who had said that she would; and a small doubt crept into his heart, and a feeling that perhaps life might be different for him if Peter Morrison decided to come to Lilac Valley to build his home.

Then the sunlight faded, night closed in, but as he went his homeward way John Gilman was thinking, thinking deeply and not at all happily..