Eden was a tiny , cornery , gabled grey house just across the road and down a long , twisted windy lane , skirting the edge of a beech wood . Nobody had lived in it for four years , and it had a neglected , out-at-elbow appearance . `` It 's rather a box of a place , is n't it ? '' said Willard slowly . `` I 'm afraid she will think so . But it is all I can afford just now . I dream of giving her a palace some day , of course . But we 'll have to begin humbly . Do you think anything can be made of it ? '' Miss Sally was busily engaged in sizing up the possibilities of the place . `` It is pretty small , '' she said meditatively . `` And the yard is small too -- and there are far too many trees and shrubs all messed up together . They must be thinned out -- and that paling taken down . I think a good deal can be done with it . As for the house -- well , let us see the inside . '' Willard unlocked the door and showed Miss Sally over the place . Miss Sally poked and pried and sniffed and wrinkled her forehead , and finally stood on the stairs and delivered her ultimatum . `` This house can be done up very nicely . Paint and paper will work wonders . But I would n't paint it outside .
Leave it XXXXX pretty silver weather-grey and plant vines to run over it .
across down for in of on outside over that to