surest science, and oh, such closets,
such stairways, such comforts! such defiance of the elements, such
security against cold and heat, against fire, flood and tempest! such
economy! such immunity from all the ills that domestic life is heir to,
from intractable servants to sewer-gas!

If some ardent esthete had arrested her flight of fancy by asking
whether she found room for soul-satisfying beauty, she would have
dropped from her air-castle, landing squarely upon her feet, and
replied that if her house was comfortable and told no lies it would be
beautiful enough for her--which was saying a great deal, however
interpreted, for she loved beauty, as all well-balanced mortals ought,
and she would have been conspicuously out of place in a house that was
not beautiful.

Perhaps I ought to explain that the house that Jack built, intending to
establish Jill as its mistress when it should be completed, had proved
most unsatisfactory to that extremely practical young woman. In
consequence, she had obstinately refused to name the happy day till the
poor, patient fellow had kept bachelor's hall nearly a year. At last,
in consideration of an unqualified permission to "make the house over"
to any extent, the rough place that threatened to upset them was made
smooth. Her father's present, wisely withheld till peace was declared,
left nothing to be desired, and they started on their wedding journey
as happy as if they owned the universe. This excursion, however, came
near being a failure from the sentimental standpoint, because, wherever
Jill discovered a house that gave any outward sign of inward grace, it
must be visited and examined as to its internal arrangements. Naturally
this struck Jack as an unromantic diversion, but he soon caught the
spirit, and after much practice gave his salutatory address with
apparent eagerness:

"My wife and I happen to be passing through town and have been struck
by the appearance of your house. Will you kindly allow us to have a
glimpse of the interior?"

The request was invariably granted, for nothing is more gratifying than
the fame of having the "finest house in town." Unhappily the interiors
were never satisfactory to Jill, and her valedictory to the owners of
the striking houses seldom went beyond thanks for their courtesy.

"We visited several houses on our trip," she observed to her father--

"Several hundred," said Jack--

"But were disappointed in them all. Many of them must have