Beulah - Page 249/348

"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.