Page:Frank Stockton - Rudder Grange.djvu/71

Rh bachelor—and now, in four short months, he is a grandfather!"

Carefully propounded inquiries in the morning, proved Euphemia's conclusions to be correct.

The next evening, when we were quietly sitting in our own room, Euphemia remarked that she did not wish to have anything to do with French fiats.

"They seem to be very convenient," I said.

"Oh, yes, convenient enough, but I don't like them. I would hate to live where everything let down like a table-lid, or else turned with a crank, and when I think of those fire-escapes, and the boarder's grandchild, it makes me feel very unpleasantly."

"But the grandchild don't follow as a matter of course," said I.

"No," she answered, "but I shall never like French flats."

And we discussed them no more.

For some weeks we examined into every style of economic and respectable housekeeping, and many methods of living in what Euphemia called "imitation comfort" were set aside as unworthy of consideration.

"My dear," said Euphemia, one evening, "what we really ought to do is to build. Then we would have exactly the house we want."

"Very true," I replied; "but to build a house, a man must have money."

"Oh, no!" said she, "or at least not much. For one thing, you might join a building association. In some of those societies I know that you only have to pay a dollar a week."

"But do you suppose the association builds houses for all its members?" I asked.