I started out to build
a forty-thousand-dollar house. Well, sir! that fellow
has got me in for more than sixty thousand already,
and I doubt if I get out of it much under a hundred.
You can't have a nice house for nothing. It's just like
ordering a picture of a painter. You pay him enough,
and he can afford to paint you a first-class picture;
and if you don't, he can't. That's all there is of it.
Why, they tell me that A. T. Stewart gave one of those
French fellows sixty thousand dollars for a little
seven-by-nine picture the other day. Yes, sir, give an
architect money enough, and he'll give you a nice house
every time."
"I've heard that they're sharp at getting money to realise
their ideas," assented the young man, with a laugh.
"Well, I should say so!" exclaimed the Colonel.
"They come to you with an improvement that you can't resist.
It has good looks and common-sense and everything in
its favour, and it's like throwing money away to refuse.
And they always manage to get you when your wife is around,
and then you're helpless."
The Colonel himself set the example of laughing at this joke,
and the young man joined him less obstreperously.
The girls turned, and he said, "I don't think I ever saw
this view to better advantage. It s surprising how well
the Memorial Hall and the Cambridge spires work up,
over there.
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