She had set to work upon the
neglected garden, and was busy trying to make flower-beds, and she looked
forward keenly to the forthcoming hockey season at school. The daily
drive to Durracombe and back was pure delight, and formed her greatest
compensation for leaving Porthkeverne and The Gables.
The Haven, as the house occupied by the Castletons was called, had been
changed into its present form by an old retired sea-captain, and there
was much about it that suggested a nautical atmosphere. The panelled
walls of the parlour might have been taken from a ship's cabin, the
dining-room contained convenient lockers, there was a small observatory
upstairs built to accommodate a big telescope, and the figure-head of a
vessel adorned the garden. Young Mrs. Castleton, whose tastes inclined
towards up-to-date comforts, often grumbled at its inconveniences, but on
the whole the family liked it. They would not have exchanged it for a
suburban villa for worlds. Just on the opposite side of the harbour, with
the jetty and the broad strip of green water in between, was the
furnished house rented at present by the Macleods.
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