t the magnificence of the Washington Square home,
and modestly protested against its luxury. Her own boudoir was a cheap
affair compared with that in the new house.

"Don't you think, dear," she said, puzzling over the drawings, "that it
would better be all sandalwood? I hate mosaics. It looks so cheap to have
little bits of precious woods stuck about."

"I should think so. But what do you do with the ebony?"

"Oh, the ebony and gold? That is the adjoining sitting-room--such a
pretty contrast."

"And the teak?"

"It has such a beautiful polish. That is another room. Carmen says that
will be our sober room, where we go when we want to repent of things."

"Well, if you have any sandal-wood left over, you can work it into your
Boys' Lodging-house, you know."

"Don't be foolish! And then the ballroom, ninety feet long--it looks
small on the paper. And do you think we'd better have those life-size
figures all round, mediaeval statues, with the incandescents? Carmen says
she would prefer a row of monks--something piquant about that in a
ballroom. I don't know that I like the figures, after all; they are too
crushing and heavy."

"It would make a good room for the Common Council," Henderson suggested.
"Wouldn't it be prettier hung with silken arras figured with a chain of
dancing-girls? Dear me, I don't know what to do. Rodney, you must put
your mind on it."

"Might line it with gold plate. I'll make arrangements so that you can
draw on the Bank of England."

Margaret looked hurt. "But you told me, dear, not to spare anything
--that we would have the finest house in the city. I'm sure I sha'n't
enjoy it unless you want it."

"Oh, I want it," resumed Henderson, good-humoredly. "Go ahead, little
wife. We shall pull through."

"Women beat me," Henderson confessed to Uncle Jerry next day. "They are
the most economical of beings and the most extravagant. I've got to look
round for an extra million somewhere today."

"Yes, there is this good thing about women," Uncle Jerry responded, with
a twinkle in his eyes, "they share your riches just as cheerfully as they
do your poverty. I tell Maria that if I had the capacity for making money
that she has for spending it I could assume the national debt."

To have the finest house in the city, or rather, in the American
newspaper phrase, in the Western world, was a comprehensible ambition for
Henderson, for it was a visible expression of his wealth and his
cultivated taste.