they can put up with the
second best. Though we don't intend to have any second best. There
ain't going to be an unpleasant room in the whole house, from top to
bottom."

"Oh, I wish papa wouldn't brag so!" breathed Irene to her sister, where
they stood, a little apart, looking away together.

The Colonel went on. "No, sir," he swelled out, "I have gone in for
making a regular job of it. I've got the best architect in Boston, and
I'm building a house to suit myself. And if money can do it, guess I'm
going to be suited."

"It seems very delightful," said Corey, "and very original."

"Yes, sir. That fellow hadn't talked five minutes before I saw that he
knew what he was about every time."

"I wish mamma would come!" breathed Irene again. "I shall certainly go
through the floor if papa says anything more."

"They are making a great many very pretty houses nowadays," said the
young man. "It's very different from the old-fashioned building."

"Well," said the Colonel, with a large toleration of tone and a deep
breath that expanded his ample chest, "we spend more on our houses
nowadays. I started out to build a forty-thousand-dollar house. Well,
sir! that fellow has got me in for more than sixty thousand already,
and I doubt if I get out of it much under a hundred. You can't have a
nice house for nothing. It's just like ordering a picture of a
painter. You pay him enough, and he can afford to paint you a
first-class picture; and if you don't, he can't. That's all there is of
it. Why, they tell me that A. T. Stewart gave one of those French
fellows sixty thousand dollars for a little seven-by-nine picture the
other day. Yes, sir, give an architect money enough, and he'll give
you a nice house every time."

"I've heard that they're sharp at getting money to realise their
ideas," assented the young man, with a laugh.

"Well, I should say so!" exclaimed the Colonel. "They come to you with
an improvement that you can't resist. It has good looks and
common-sense and everything in its favour, and it's like throwing money
away to refuse. And they always manage to get you when your wife is
around, and then you're helpless."

The Colonel himself set the example of laughing at this joke, and the
young man joined him less obstreperously. The girls turned, and he
said, "I don't think I ever saw this view to better advantage. It's
surprising how well the Memorial Hall and the Cambridge spires work up,
over