CHAPTER II
The Misses Grimson were at home from four to seven on alternate Tuesdays in July, beginning with the second one, and July was consequently rather a busy time in Brixham, since the Dean's wife also gave alternate Wednesdays (luckily in different weeks to those marked by the fêtes of the Misses Grimson, or the strain might have been too severe); the Bishop's wife might be counted upon for two garden-parties, and there was also a cricket week given by the officers of the regiment stationed there, with tea and a band provided every day. In addition, the usual amount of entertaining went on, but during July the Misses Grimson never went out to dinner, since the evenings had to be kept free. And when July was over, they retired to Sea View Cottage at Littlestone, in order to rest during the month of August, previous to resuming activities again in September.
Their house lay a little outside the town, on a hill commanding a pleasant view over it. It lay a little back from the road, and the front door was approached by a "carriage-sweep" which led in at one gate and out at another, and its privacy was further enhanced by a row of laurels which lay between the entrance and the exit, thus screening the lower windows of the house. There was no mistaking which gate was which, because by the railings at one gate was painted the word "In," and though the corrosion of the elements had obliterated the word "Out" at the other, leaving only "T," it was clear that if one gate was "In," the other must be "Out," so that there was no need to have it repainted. Matters were further facilitated by the fact that a single conveyance filled up nearly the whole of the carriagesweep, so that any intelligent driver, by observing out of which gate the horse's nose was protruding, could easily gather that he must make his entrance at the other one, in order to obviate the inconvenience of the earlier arrival going backward when he should have entered, since there was not room for two carriages
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