This was followed by a letter explaining that he hoped he might have his meals with them; but quiet, essential for his work, made it necessary to sleep out.
Mary was walking in the garden with Elizabeth, and inspecting the roses, when the letter arrived.
"But that's absurd," said Elizabeth decidedly, when the plan was explained to her.

"There are five spare rooms, even when the boys are here.

Besides, he wouldn't get a room in the village.

And he oughtn't to work if he's overworked." "But perhaps he doesn't want to see so much of us," Mary thought to herself, although outwardly she assented, and felt grateful to Elizabeth for supporting her in what was, of course, her desire.

They were cutting roses at the time, and laying them, head by head, in a shallow basket.
"If Ralph were here, he'd find this very dull," Mary thought, with a little shiver of irritation, which led her to place her rose the wrong way in the basket.