the wart and gazed at
him. "I believe you're right," she said, after a few moments of
reflection. "I can't recall no story now where the villain was not
foiled at last. Let me see--there was _Lovely Lulu, or the Doctor's
Darling_, and _Margaret Merriman, or the Maiden's Mad Marriage_, and
_True Gold, or Pretty Crystal's Love_, and _The American Countess, or
Hearts Aflame_, and this one I was just speakin' of, _Genevieve
Carleton, or the Brakeman's Bride_. In every one of 'em, the villain got
his just deserts, though sometimes they was disjointed owin' to the
story bein' broke off at the most interestin' point and continued the
followin' week."

"Well, if the villain is always foiled, you're surely not afraid, are
you?"

"I don't know's I'm afraid in the long run, but I don't like to have you
go through such things and be exposed to the temptations of a great
city."

"Why don't you come with me, Mother, and keep house for me? We can find
a little flat somewhere, and----"

"What on earth is that?"

[Sidenote: Apartments and Flats]

"I've never been in one myself, but Miss Wynne said that, if you wanted
to come, she would find us a flat, or an apartment."

"What's the difference between a flat and an apartment?"

"That's what I asked her. She said it was just the rent. You pay more
for an apartment than you do for a flat."

"I wouldn't want anything I had to pay more for," observed Miss Mattie,
stroking her chin thoughtfully. "You ain't told me what a flat is."

"A few rooms all on one floor, like a cottage. It's like several
cottages, all under one roof."

"What do they want to cover the cottages with a roof for? Don't they
want light and air?"

"You don't understand, Mother. Suppose that our house here was an
apartment house. The stairs would be shut off from these rooms and the
hall would be accessible from the street. Instead of having three rooms
upstairs, there might be six--one of them a kitchen and the others
living-rooms and bedrooms. Don't you see?"

"You mean a kitchen on the same floor with the bedrooms?"

"Yes, all the rooms on one floor."

"Just as if an earthquake was to jolt off the top of the house and shake
all the bedrooms down here?"

"Something like that."

"Well, then," said Miss Mattie, firmly, "all I've got to say is that it
ain't decent. Think of people sleepin' just off kitchens and washin'
their faces and hands in the sink."

"I think some of them must be very nice, Moth