"Amarilly, we can't hev everything to onct," he rebuked solemnly. "The
paper'll crack as sure as fate, if you put it on now."
"Let it crack!" defied Amarilly. "Then you can put on more. You're away
nearly all day, and the rest of us are at work, but if Lily Rose has to
sit here all day and look at these white walls that look just like sour
bread that hasn't riz"--Derry had not yet discovered this word in
Amarilly's vocabulary--"she'll go mad."
"Amarilly," sighed the Boarder, "you'll hev me in the poorhouse yit!"
"Oh, dear!" sighed Amarilly. "I'll have to let you into another secret.
Mr. Meredith is going to give you and Lily Rose a handsome centre-table
and an easy-chair. There won't be any surprises left for you by the time
the wedding is over, but you're so set, I have to keep giving things
away to you."
"That makes me think," remarked the Boarder. "I was going to ask you
what I'd orter give the preacher fer marryin' Lily Rose and me. The
fireman of Number Six told me he give two dollars when he was spliced,
but you see Mr. Meredith is so swell, I'd orter give more."
Amarilly gazed reflectively into space while she grappled with this
proposition.
"Do you know," she said presently, with the rare insight that was her
birthright, "I don't think Mr. Meredith would like money--not from you--
for Lily Rose. You see he's a sort of a friend, and you'd better give
him a present because money, unless it was a whole lot, wouldn't mean
anything to him."
"That's so," admitted the Boarder, "but what kin I give him?"
Amarilly had another moment of thought.
"Make him a bookrack. Mr. Derry will draw you the design, and you can
carve it out. You can do it noons after you eat your luncheon, then you
won't lose any time building the house."
"That's jest what I'll do. So with the fee saved and the cheer and table
out, I kin paper the rooms. You find out what kind Lily Rose wants and
help her pick it out."
"She'll choose blue," lamented Amarilly, "and that fades quick."
Lily Rose was easily persuaded to let Derry be consulted. He promptly
volunteered to tint the walls, having studied interior decorations at
one time in his career. He wrought a marvellous effect in soft grays and
browns with bordering graceful vines.