Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/76

 "Well, I am. Now, why not get married, eh?"

"Really and truly, you mean?"

"Shut up! Yes. I'm getting sort of sick of just hanging around, old man. What I want is a place to go home to."

"Foreclosed the mortgage, have they?" "Hell, that ain't a home! I mean a—a place of my own, don't you see. A little house with a wife and a cat on the hearth"

"Trouble is, Pete, it's hard nowadays to get a wife who will stay on the hearth. They all want to be treated like one of the family!"

"Quit kiddin'; I'm in earnest. Here's regards. Now, look; why not marry a nice girl and settle down?"

"Found her yet?"

"N-no. I could, though. I've got money enough to marry on"

Gordon put his head back and laughed. "Good old Peter! He's got money enough to marry on! Pete, did you know that there are men in this old town who marry on twelve dollars a week?"

"Are there?" asked Peter vaguely. "Well, but look at the girls they marry! Make their own hats and do their own cooking, don't they? By