THE OLD MAID'S HOUSE: IN PLAN

BY ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS


Corona had five hundred dollars and some pluck for her enterprise. She
had also at her command a trifle for furnishing. But that seemed very
small capital. Her friends at large discouraged her generously. Even Tom
said he didn't know about that, and offered her three hundred more.

This manly offer she declined in a womanly manner.

"It is to be _my_ house, thank you, Tom, dear. I can live in yours at
home." ...

Corona's architectural library was small. She found on the top shelf one
book on the construction of chicken-roosts, a pamphlet in explanation of
the kindergarten system, a cook-book that had belonged to her
grandmother, and a treatise on crochet. There her domestic literature
came to an end. She accordingly bought a book entitled "North American
Homes"; then, having, in addition, begged or borrowed everything within
two covers relating to architecture that was to be found in her
immediate circle of acquaintance, she plunged into that unfamiliar
science with hopeful zeal.

The result of her studies was a mixed one. It was necessary, it seemed,