I didn't mean that forty dollars was
too high a rent. It isn't, it is a very low one. I meant that it
was more than I ought to think of paying. You see, Mr. Winslow, I
have been thinking that we might live here in Orham, Barbara and I.
I like the town; and the people, most of those I have met, have
been very pleasant and kind. And it is necessary--that is, it
seems to me preferable--that we live, for some years at least, away
from the city. This little house of yours is perfect. I fell in
love with the outside of it at first sight. Now I find the inside
even more delightful. I"--she hesitated, and then added--"I don't
suppose you would care to let it unfurnished at--at a lower rate?"
Jed was very much embarrassed. The idea that his caller would make
such a proposition as this had not occurred to him for a moment.
If it had the lost key would almost certainly have remained lost.
He liked Mrs. Armstrong even on such short acquaintance, and he had
taken a real fancy to Barbara; but his prejudice against tenants
remained. He rubbed his chin.
"Why--why, now, ma'am," he stammered, "you--you wouldn't like
livin' in Orham all the year 'round, would you?"
"I hope I should. I know I should like it better than living--
elsewhere," with, so it seemed to him, a little shudder. "And I
cannot afford to live otherwise than very simply anywhere.
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