Page:Middle Aged Love Stories (IA middleagedlove00bacorich).djvu/265

 up! And I do love a good crayon portrait.”

They looked at each other in silence.

“And when you have a set of furniture, it makes me nervous not to have it set together,” Aunt Julia went on determinedly.

“And I will not have a woman smoking in my house!

“And oh, Carrie, if you knew how I suffered with that dirty darky girl!”

“But—but, Aunt Jule, why didn’t you—”

“You see, Carrie and Lizzie, it was this way,” said Mr. Bean soothingly.

“Your aunt and I got talking old times, and we found that we both felt about the same. And after we’d looked the old house over together a day or two, she couldn’t seem to leave it, somehow, and she couldn’t live in it alone, and I always wanted it.

“So I said, ‘If you’ll just step over to the parson’s, across the street, with me,