"They are making a great many very pretty houses nowadays,"
said the young man. "It's very different from the
old-fashioned building."

"Well," said the Colonel, with a large toleration of tone
and a deep breath that expanded his ample chest, "we spend
more on our houses nowadays. I started out to build
a forty-thousand-dollar house. Well, sir! that fellow
has got me in for more than sixty thousand already,
and I doubt if I get out of it much under a hundred.
You can't have a nice house for nothing. It's just like
ordering a picture of a painter. You pay him enough,
and he can afford to paint you a first-class picture;
and if you don't, he can't. That's all there is of it.
Why, they tell me that A. T. Stewart gave one of those
French fellows sixty thousand dollars for a little
seven-by-nine picture the other day. Yes, sir, give an
architect money enough, and he'll give you a nice house
every time."

"I've heard that they're sharp at getting money to realise
their ideas," assented the young man, with a laugh.

"Well, I should say so!" exclaimed the Colonel.
"They come to you with an improvement that you can't resist.
It has good looks and common-sense and everything in
its favour, and it's like throwing money away to refuse.
And they always manage to get you when your wife is around,
and then you're helpless."