Galicians, and still left room for the tin stove on which to cook
their stews. Upon his advice, too, the partitions by which the cottage
had been divided into kitchen, parlour, and bed rooms, were with one
exception removed as unnecessary and interfering unduly with the most
economic use of valuable floor space. Upon the floor of the main room,
some sixteen feet by twelve, under Rosenblatt's manipulation,
twenty boarders regularly spread their blankets, and were it not
for the space demanded by the stove and the door, whose presence
he deeply regretted, this ingenious manipulator could have provided
for some fifteen additional beds. Beyond the partition, which as a
concession to Rosenblatt's finer sensibilities was allowed to remain,
was Paulina's boudoir, eight feet by twelve, where she and her two
children occupied a roomy bed in one corner. In the original plan
of the cottage four feet had been taken from this boudoir for
closet purposes, which closet now served as a store room for
Paulina's superfluous and altogether wonderful wardrobe.

After a few weeks' experiment, Rosenblatt, under pressure of an
exuberant hospitality, sought to persuade Paulina that, at the
sacrifice of some comfort and at the expense of a certain degree of
privacy, the unoccupied floor space of her boudoir might be placed
at the disposal of a selected number of her countrymen, who for the
additional comfort thus secured, this room being less exposed to the
biting wind from the door, would not object to pay a higher price.
Against this arrangement poor Paulina made feeble protest,
not so much on her own account as for the sake of the children.

"Children!" cried Rosenblatt. "What are they to you?
They are not your children."