Free House That Berry Built by Dornford Yates

unwell. And who shall blame him? From his point of view, the site is like a bad dream. And what of electricity? I know you can make your own, but that pastime is over-rated – unless you can have a turbine; and there’s no head of water for that. So the lack of water is not the only snag. For all that, I hate being beaten. I like this place. And I’d like to wake up in the morning – in a bedroom worth sleeping in and right on the top of the world. And so I say this. If de Moulin can wangle the water, let’s buy the fields – if we can. They shouldn’t cost very much; and, if we get stuck, we can always sell them again. And when we have bought the fields, then we can collect ourselves and consider the fences to come.”
    “We’ll fly them all,” said Jill.
    “He’s right,” said Jonah. “There may be other snags. But I refuse to see them.”
    “So do I,” said my sister. “I want my ivory tower.”
    Jill had hold of my arm.
    “Oh, Boy, it’ll be all right, won’t it? Our dream’ll come true?”
    “God knows,” said I. “But, if we can get the water, we’re over the biggest fence.”
    So much for Thursday morning.
    The Council was to meet on Friday at four o’clock.
    To say these two days were trying means nothing at all. In a way, this was natural enough; for upon the result of that meeting, our future would largely depend. At the moment we had no plans: we had no home and we knew not where we should go or what we should do. But if the Council were to give the main water to Besse – well, I think we all knew in our hearts that upon the site we had chosen would rise our new home. Be that as it may, we could think of nothing else; and the more we thought of the matter, the more glaring became the advantages, not only of building a home, but of building it upon Evergreen, midway between Lally and Besse.
    Berry was as bad as anyone.
    “It isn’t as if, if we build there, we shall be out of touch. I’ve just been working it out. We can lunch at the Savoy on Thursday and breakfast here – on our terrace, on Friday at nine o’clock.”
    “Never!” cried Daphne.
    “We can. Afternoon plane to Paris, and then the night train to Pau. That gets in before eight – and there you are. Then again…”
    And so on.
    We strolled towards Besse and surveyed the site from below: we strolled on through Besse, gained the upper road and surveyed the site from above: armed with field-glasses, we drove through Lally and on to the road to Pau – to survey the site from the opposite side of the valley, two miles away.
    After lunch on Friday—
    “This is absurd,” said Jonah. “Who’s coming with me to Pau for the afternoon?”
    Daphne and Jill refused to leave the house, but Berry and I found Jonah’s suggestion good. We made odd purchases there and presently entered a garage in search of some cotton waste. Whilst the people were getting this, I was looking round, and there, in a row of cars, was Shapely’s caravan.
    I pointed her out to Jonah, and together we looked her over from stem to stern.
    “Close quarters for two,” said my cousin. “Except for that, she’s a very convenient job.”
    This was no more than the truth, for most caravans must be trailed, or else are too unwieldy to use upon lesser roads. But this was compact – about half as big again as a full-sized limousine.
    “Come on, you two,” called Berry. “It’s nearly a quarter to five, and we may as well be in at the death.”
    Forty-five minutes later, the Rolls stole up to Bel Air…
    Daphne looked up from a chaise longue beneath the limes.
    “No news yet,” she said. “Jill’s up at a bedroom-window, watching the road.”
    Not until six o’clock did a servant deliver a note.
    This was addressed to Daphne.
    We crowded about her to read the momentous words.
     
    Madame,
    I have the great pleasure to inform you that, at the meeting of the Town Council this afternoon, it was decided by four votes to three to give the Lally water to