k in everyone and everything. A
fellow couldn't bore Ruth if he tried. She would have the time of her
life sitting on a bench in the park or walking down the street or just
staring out the window of her aunt's front room. And that street
looked like Sunday afternoon all the week long.

I began to do some figuring when I was alone but there wasn't much
satisfaction in it. I had the clothes in my room, a good collection of
pipes, and ten dollars of my last week's salary. A man couldn't get
married on that even to a girl like Ruth who wouldn't want much. I cut
down here and there but I naturally wanted to appear well before Ruth
and so the savings went into new ties and shoes. In this way I fretted
along for a few months until I screwed my courage up to ask for
another raise. Those were prosperous days for the United Woollen and
everyone from the president to the office boy was in good humor. I
went to Morse, head of the department, and told him frankly that I
wished to get married and needed more money. That wasn't a business
reason for an increase but those of us who had worked there some years
had come to feel like one of the family and it wasn't unusual for the
company to raise a man at such a time. He said he'd see what he could
do about it and when I opened my pay envelope the next week I found an
extra five in it.

I went direct from the office to Ruth and asked her to marry me. She
didn't hang her head nor stammer but she looked me straight in the
eyes a moment longer than usual and answered:

"All right, Billy."

"Then let's go out this afternoon and see about getting a house," I
said.

I don't think a Carleton ever boarded when first married. To me it
wouldn't have seemed like getting married. I knew a suburb where some
of the men I had met at the country club lived and we went out there.
It was a beautiful June day and everything looked clean and fresh. We
found a little house of eight rooms that we knew we wanted as soon as
we saw it. It was one of a group of ten or fifteen that were all very
much alike. There was a piazza on the front and a little bit of lawn
that looked as though it had been squeezed in afterwards. In the rear
there was another strip of land where we thought we might raise some
garden stuff if we put it in boxes. The house itself had a front hall
out of which stairs led to the next floor. To the right there was a
large room separated by folding doors with another good-sized room
next t