"To open a store of any kind would involve five times the exposure of a
boarding-house; and, moreover, I know nothing of business."

"Keeping a store? Oh, no! we couldn't do that. Think of the dreadful
exposure!"

"But in taking boarders we only increase our family, and all goes on as
usual. To my mind, it is the most genteel thing that we can do. Our style
of living will be the same. Our waiter and all our servants will be
retained. In fact, to the eye there will be little change, and the world
need never know how greatly reduced our circumstances have become."

This mode of argument tended to reconcile Edith to taking boarders.
Something, she saw, had to be done. Opening a store was felt to be out of
the question; and as to commencing a school, the thought was repulsed at
the very first suggestion.

A few friends were consulted on the subject, and all agreed that the best
thing for the widow to do was to take boarders. Each one could point to
some lady who had commenced the business with far less ability to make
boarders comfortable, and who had yet got along very well. It was conceded
on all hands that it was a very genteel business, and that some of the
first ladies had been compelled to resort to it, without being any the less
respected. Almost every one to whom the matter was referred spoke in favor
of the thing, and but a single individual suggested difficulty; but what he
said was not permitted to have much weight. This individual was a brother
of the widow, who had always been looked upon as rather eccentric. He was a
bachelor, and without fortune, merely enjoying a moderate income as
book-keeper in the office of an insurance company.