hates talk. Now you'll go up in his room and you'll see everythin' in it, so
you could tell it all off tomorrow. Why, can't you see he hates talk and
wants somethin' done?"

"Jane," said Mrs. Mumpson, in her most severe and dignified manner, "you are
not only disrespectful to your parent, but you're a time server. What Mr.
Holcroft wants is a very secondary matter; what is BEST for him is the chief
consideration. But I have touched on things far above your comprehension.
Come, you can make up the bed, and I shall inspect as becomes my station."


Chapter VI. A Marriage!

In a quiet side street of the market town in which Mr. Holcroft was accustomed
to dispose of his farm produce was a three-story tenement house. A family
occupied each floor, those dwelling in the first two stories being plain,
respectable people of the mechanic class. The rooms in the third story were,
of course, the cheapest, but even from the street might be seen evidences that
more money had been spent upon them than could have been saved in rent. Lace
curtains were looped aside from the windows, through which were caught
glimpses of flowers that must have come from a greenhouse. We have only to
enter these apartments to find that the suggestion of refined taste is amply
fulfilled. While nothing is costly, there is a touch of grace, a hint of
beauty in everything permitting simple adornment. The mistress of these rooms
is not satisfied with neatness and order merely; it is her instinct to add
something to please the eye--a need essential to her, yet too often
conspicuously absent in rented quarters of a similar character.

It is remarkable to what a degree people's abodes are a reflex of themselves.
Mrs. Alida Ostrom had been brought to these rooms a happy bride but a few