erruptin'. Look 'round all ye want to, or set down and
rest ye."

"That would be a good motto for your bookstore," she screamed to
Erlcort, when they got out into the roar of the avenue. "'Look 'round
all ye want to, or set down and rest ye.' Wasn't he sweet? And I don't
wonder you're taken with the place: it _has_ such capabilities. You
might as well begin imagining how you will arrange it."

They were walking involuntarily up the avenue, and when they came to
the Park they went into it, and in the excitement of their planning
they went as far as the Ramble, where they sat down on a bench and
disappointed some squirrels who supposed they had brought peanuts with
them.

They decided that the front of the shop should be elaborately simple;
perhaps the door should be painted black, with a small-paned sash and
a heavy brass latch. On each side should be a small-paned show-window,
with books laid inside on an inclined shelving; on the door should be
a modest bronze plate, reading, "The Critical Bookstore." They
rejected _shop_ as an affectation, and they hooted the notion of "Ye
Critical Bookstore" as altogether loathsome. The door and window would
be in a rather belated taste, but the beautiful is never out of date,
and black paint and small panes might be found rococo in their
old-fashionedness now. There should be a fireplace, or perhaps a
Franklin stove, at the rear of the room, with a high-shouldered,
small-paned sash on each side letting in the light from the yard of
the carpenter-shop. On the chimneypiece should be lettered, "Look
'round all ye want to, or set down and rest ye."

The genius of the place should be a refined hospitality, such as the
gentle old codger had practised with them, and to facilitate this
there should be a pair of high-backed settles, one under each window.
The book-counter should stretch the whole length of the store, and at
intervals beside it, against the book-shelving, should be set
old-fashioned chairs, but not too old-fashioned. Against the lower
book-shelves on a deeper shelf might be stood against the books a few
sketches in water-color, or even oil.

This was Margaret Green's idea.

"And would you guarantee the quality?" Erlcort asked.

"Perhaps they wouldn't be for sale, though if any one insisted--"

"I see. Well, pass the sketches. What else?"

"Well, a few little figures in plaster, or even marble or bronze, very
Greek, or very American; things in low relief."

"Pass