Page:Middle Aged Love Stories (IA middleagedlove00bacorich).djvu/89

 cultivated work was fully equal to a much longer space of manual labor that is more mechanical, more tiresome.”

“Better fifty years of poker than a cycle of croquet!” her lodger murmured. “Yes, I have always felt that myself.”

“And somebody must be there from ten to twelve, say, in the mornings, in what we call the office; just to keep an eye on things, and answer questions about the kitchen, and watch the reading-room, and recommend the periodicals, and take the children’s Civic League reports, and oversee the Rooms generally. Now I’d be there Wednesdays to meet the mothers, and Mrs. Underwood Saturdays for the Band of Hope and the kitchen-garden. It would be just Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from ten to twelve, say!”

“From ten to twelve, say,” he repeated absently, with his eyes on her handsome, eager face. He had never seen her so animated, so girlishly insistent.