fter two short months she had acquired more information on
New York apartment life than she would ever have on both the others put
together. She knew now what we needed and she would find it. I was
willing that this should be so. There were other demands on my time, and
besides, I had not then contracted the flat-disease in its subsequent
virulent form.

She said, and I agreed with her, that it was a mistake to be so far from
the business center. That the time, car fare, and nerve tissue wasted
between Park Place and Harlem were of more moment than a few dollars'
difference in the monthly rent.

We regarded this conclusion somewhat in the light of a discovery, and
wondered why people of experience had not made it before. Ah, me! we
have made many discoveries since that time. Discoveries as old as they
are always new. The first friendly ray of March sunlight; the first
green leaf in the park; the first summer glow of June; the first dead
leaf and keen blast of autumn; these, too, have wakened within us each
year a new understanding of our needs and of the ideal habitation;
these, too, have set us to discovering as often as they come around, as
men shall still discover so long as seasons of snow and blossom pass,
and the heart of youth seeks change. But here I am digressing again,
when I should be getting on with my story.

As I have said, the Little Woman selected our next home. The Little
Woman and the Precious Ones. They were gone each day for several hours
and returned each evening wearied to the bone but charged heavily with
information.

The Little Woman was no longer a novice. "Single and double flats,"
"open plumbing," "tiled vestibule," "uniformed hall service," and other
stock terms, came trippingly from her tongue.

Of some of the places she had diagrams. Of others she volunteered to
draw them from memory. I did not then realize that this was the first
symptom of flat-collecting in its acute form, or that in examining her
crude pencilings I was courting the infection. I could not foresee that
the slight yet definite and curious variation in the myriad city
apartments might become a fascination at last, and the desire for
possession a mania more enslaving than even the acquirement of rare rugs
or old china and bottles.

I examined the Little Woman's assortment with growing interest while the
Precious Ones chorused their experiences, which consisted mainly in the
things they had been allowed to eat and dri