"I've always wished to see the inside of this wonderful place.

How in the world did you ever manage to get the key to it ?" Tom smiled very tenderly into the eager face so near his own.

"You've missed the biggest part of the surprise, Grace," he answered.

"Don't you understand yet why we came out here?
Do you think I would invite a royal princess to enter her castle if it weren't really her very own ?" "You don't mean--you can't mean--Oh, Tom!" Grace drew a quick, ecstatic breath that was half sob.

A vagrant breeze set the leaves of the sentinel trees to sighing their approval as they looked down on the little tableau of human happiness.
"It is your very own House Behind the World, dear," Tom assured her.
"Our future home.