."

"Is furnishing part of your business?" inquired the girl, eyeing him in
bewilderment.

"Business?" said the other. "Oh, no. I did it for amusement. I chose
and the captain paid. It was a delightful experience. The sordid
question of price was waived; for once expense was nothing to me. I wish
you'd just step up to your room and see how you like it. It's the one
over the kitchen."

Miss Drewitt hesitated, and then curiosity, combined with a cheerful idea
of probably being able to disapprove of the lauded decorations, took her
indoors and upstairs. In a few minutes she came down again.

"I suppose it's all right," she said, ungraciously, "but I don't
understand why you should have selected it."

"I had to," said Mr. Tredgold, confidentially. "I happened to go to
Tollminster the same day as the captain and went into a shop with him.
If you could only see the things he wanted to buy, you would understand."

The girl was silent.

"The paper the captain selected for your room," continued Mr. Tredgold,
severely, "was decorated with branches of an unknown flowering shrub, on
the top twig of which a humming-bird sat eating a dragonfly. A rough
calculation showed me that every time you opened your eyes in the morning
you would see fifty-seven humming-birds-all made in the same
pattern-eating fifty-seven ditto dragon-flies. The captain said it was
cheerful."

"I have no doubt that my uncle's selection would have satisfied me," said
Miss Drewitt, coldly.

"The curtains he fancied were red, with small yellow tigers crouching all
over them," pursued Mr. Tredgold. "The captain seemed fond of animals."

"I think that you were rather--venturesome," said the girl. "Suppose
that I had not liked the things you selected?"

Mr. Tredgold deliberated. "I felt sure that you would like them," he
said, at last. "It was a hard struggle not to keep some of the things
for myself. I've had my eye on those two Chippendale chairs for years.
They belonged to an old woman in Mint Street, but she always refused to
part with them. I shouldn't have got them, only one of them let her down
the other day."

"Let her down?" repeated Miss Drewitt, sharply. "Do you mean one of the
chairs in my bedroom?"

Mr. Tredgold nodded. "Gave her rather a nasty fall," he said. "I struck
while the iron was hot, and went and made her an offer while she was
still laid up from the effects of it. It's the one standing against the
wall; th