house for
you. She's such a help to you, that it would be a shame to take her
away. But I think mamma would go with me,--if you could take me there,
and engage my rooms and all that, why, mamma could stay with me, you
know. To be sure, it would be a trial not to have you there; but then
if I could get up my strength, you know,"--

"Exactly, certainly; and, Lillie, how would you like the parlors
arranged if you had your own way?"

"Oh, John! don't think of it."

"But I just want to know for curiosity. Now, how would you have them
if you could?"

"Well, then, John, don't you think it would be lovely to have them
frescoed? Did you ever see the Folingsbees' rooms in New York? They
were so lovely!--one was all in blue, and the other in crimson,
opening into each other; with carved furniture, and those _marquetrie_
tables, and all sorts of little French things. They had such a gay and
cheerful look."

"Now, Lillie, if you want our rooms like that, you shall have them."

"O John, you are too good! I couldn't ask such a sacrifice."

"Oh, pshaw! it isn't a sacrifice. I don't doubt I shall like them
better myself. Your taste is perfect, Lillie; and, now I think of it,
I wonder that I thought of bringing you here without consulting you
in every particular. A woman ought to be queen in her own house, I am
sure."

"But, Gracie! Now, John, I know she has associations with all the
things in this house, and it would be cruel to her," said Lillie, with
a sigh.

"Pshaw! Gracie is a good, sensible girl, and ready to make any
rational change. I suppose we have been living rather behind the
times, and are somewhat rusty, that's a fact; but Gracie will enjoy
new things as much as anybody, I dare say."

"Well, John, since you are set on it, there's Charlie Ferrola, one of
my particular friends; he's an architect, and does all about arranging
rooms and houses and furniture. He did the Folingsbees', and the
Hortons', and the Jeromes', and no end of real nobby people's houses;
and made them perfectly lovely. People say that one wouldn't know that
they weren't in Paris, in houses that he does."

Now, our John was by nature a good solid chip of the old Anglo-Saxon
block; and, if there was any thing that he had no special affinity
for, it was for French things. He had small opinion of French morals,
and French ways in general; but then at this moment he saw his Lillie,
whom, but half an hour before, he found all pale and tear-drench