l
it would be becoming of her to say that I ought to see the rooms first.
This did not occur to her and indeed her serenity was mainly what I
wanted. Our little bargain was just concluded when the door opened and
the younger lady appeared on the threshold. As soon as Miss Bordereau
saw her niece she cried out almost gaily, "He will give three
thousand--three thousand tomorrow!"

Miss Tita stood still, with her patient eyes turning from one of us to
the other; then she inquired, scarcely above her breath, "Do you mean
francs?"

"Did you mean francs or dollars?" the old woman asked of me at this.

"I think francs were what you said," I answered, smiling.

"That is very good," said Miss Tita, as if she had become conscious that
her own question might have looked overreaching.

"What do YOU know? You are ignorant," Miss Bordereau remarked; not with
acerbity but with a strange, soft coldness.

"Yes, of money--certainly of money!" Miss Tita hastened to exclaim.

"I am sure you have your own branches of knowledge," I took the liberty
of saying, genially. There was something painful to me, somehow, in the
turn the conversation had taken, in the discussion of the rent.

"She had a very good education when she was young. I looked into that
myself," said Miss Bordereau. Then she added, "But she has learned
nothing since."

"I have always been with you," Miss Tita rejoined very mildly, and
evidently with no intention of making an epigram.

"Yes, but for that!" her aunt declared with more satirical force. She
evidently meant that but for this her niece would never have got on
at all; the point of the observation however being lost on Miss Tita,
though she blushed at hearing her history revealed to a stranger. Miss
Bordereau went on, addressing herself to me: "And what time will you
come tomorrow with the money?"

"The sooner the better. If it suits you I will come at noon."

"I am always here but I have my hours," said the old woman, as if her
convenience were not to be taken for granted.

"You mean the times when you receive?"

"I never receive. But I will see you at noon, when you come with the
money."

"Very good, I shall be punctual;" and I added, "May I shake hands with
you, on our contract?" I thought there ought to be some little form, it
would make me really feel easier, for I foresaw that there would be
no other. Besides, though Miss Bordereau could not today be called
personally attractive and there was