so Saracenic and the architecture so Hudson Riverish. They found
there on the grand central divan a large lady whose vast smoothness,
placidity, and plumpness set at defiance all their preconceptions of
Mrs. Grosvenor Green, so that Mrs. March distinctly paused with her card
in her hand before venturing even tentatively to address her. Then she
was astonished at the low, calm voice in which Mrs. Green acknowledged
herself, and slowly proceeded to apologize for calling. It was not quite
true that she had taken her passage for Europe, but she hoped soon to do
so, and she confessed that in the mean time she was anxious to let her
flat. She was a little worn out with the care of housekeeping--Mrs.
March breathed, "Oh yes!" in the sigh with which ladies recognize one
another's martyrdom--and Mrs. Green had business abroad, and she was
going to pursue her art studies in Paris; she drew in Mr. Ilcomb's
class now, but the instruction was so much better in Paris; and as the
superintendent seemed to think the price was the only objection, she had
ventured to call.
"Then we didn't deceive him in the least," thought Mrs. March, while she
answered, sweetly: "No; we were only afraid that it would be too small
for our family. We require a good many rooms." She could not forego the
opportunity of saying, "My husband is coming to New York to take charge
of a literary periodical, and he will have to have a room to write in,"
which made Mrs. Green bow to March, and made March look sheepish. "But
we did think the apartment very charming", (It was architecturally
charming, she protested to her conscience), "and we should have been so
glad if we could have got into it." She followed this with some account
of their house-hunting, amid soft murmurs of sympathy from Mrs. Green,
who said that she had been through all that, and that if she could have
shown her apartment to them she felt sure that she could have explained
it so that they would have seen its capabilities better, Mrs. March
assented to this, and Mrs. Green added that if they found nothing
exactly suitable she would be glad to have them look at it again; and
then Mrs. March said that she was going back to Boston herself, but she
was leaving Mr. March to continue the search; and she had no doubt he
would be only too glad to see the apartment by daylight. "But if you
take it, Basil," she warned him, when they were alone, "I shall simply
renounce you. I wouldn't live in that junk-shop
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