“And what did you say, sir?”

“What did I say?  Why, just what every other meek husband says to appeals which ‘won’t cost much, you know.’  Of course I had no opinion of my own.  Madame, here, is infallible; so I am put down for maybe a hundred dollars more.  You need not have asked the result, you true daughter of Eve; every one of you understand wheedling.  Those two mischievous imps of mine are almost as great adepts as their mother.  Hey, Beulah, no whispering there!  You look as wise as an owl.  What am I to do next?  Paper the walls and fresco the ceilings?  Out with it.”

“I want to ask, sir, how much rent your conscience will allow you to demand for this pigeon-box of a house?”

“Well, I had an idea of asking two hundred dollars for it.  Cheap enough at that.  You may have it for two hundred,” said he, with a good-humored nod toward Beulah.

“Very well, I will take it at that, provided Mrs. Williams likes it as well as I do.  In a day or two I will determine.”

“In the name of common sense, Beulah, what freak is this?” said the doctor, looking at her with astonishment.

“I am going to live with the matron of the asylum, whom you know very well.  I think this house will suit us exactly, and the rent suits my purse far better than a larger building would.  I am tired of boarding.  I want a little home of my own, where, when the labors of school are over, I can feel at ease.  The walk twice a day will benefit me, I feel assured.  You need not look so dismal and perplexed; I will make a capital tenant.  Your door-facings shan’t be pencil-marked; your windows shan’t be broken, nor your gate swung off its hinges.  As for those flowers you are so anxious to plant, and that patch of ground you are so much interested in, it shall blossom like the plain of Sharon.”

He looked at her wistfully; took off his spectacles, wiped them with the end of his coat, and said dubiously: 

“What does Hartwell think of this project?”

“I have not consulted him.”

“The plain English of which is that, whether he approves or condemns, you are determined to carry out this new plan?  Take care, Beulah; remember the old adage about ’cutting off your nose to spite your face.’”

“Rather malapropos.  Dr. Asbury,” said she indifferently.

“I am an old man, Beulah, and know something of life and the world.”

“Nay, George; why dissuade her from this plan?  If she prefers this quiet little home to the cenfinement and bustle of a boarding house, if she thinks she would be happier here with Mrs. Williams than in the heart of the city, why should not she come?  Suffer her to judge for herself.  I am disposed to applaud her choice,” interrupted Mrs. Asbury.

“Alice, do you suppose she will be satisfied to bury herself out here, with an infirm old woman for a companion?  Here she must have an early breakfast, trudge through rain and cold into town; teach stupid little brats till evening; then listen to others equally stupid; thrum over music lessons, and, at last, tired out, drag herself back here about dark, when it is too late to see whether her garden is a cotton patch or a peach orchard!  Will you please to tell me what enjoyment there is for one of her temperament in such a treadmill existence?”