The Young Wife CHAPTER 15.
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The search for a new boarding-house was attended, of course, by its own difficulties, anxieties, and disappointments.
"What success?" asked Mrs. Lawton, as her husband came in after his first effort to obtain a new home.
"Not such as I would like; but, perhaps, as good as might have been expected. I have seen three lady boarding-house keepers."
"Well?"
"The first said that she would take us for thirty dollars a month."
"Just double what we have been paying!"
"Yes; of course I talked no further with her. I then went to see a Mrs. Allen, in Barclay Street, who keeps a very genteel, though not fashionable house. She could not spare us a parlor, but had two chambers in the third story adjoining each other, which she could let us have, with boarding, at twenty dollars a week."
"We must have a parlor," Mrs. Lawton said.
"I thought that you would not like the arrangement," resumed her husband, "and so I called on another lady, who keeps a boarding house at the upper end of Varick Street."
"That is too far out of the way."
"Yes; it is a long distance from business."
"Nor is it a pleasant part of the town?"
"No, it is not."
"But what was the result of your interview?"
"Well, the landlady agreed to take us at twenty-two dollars, and furnish a parlor and two bedrooms."
"Did you look at them?"
"O, yes."
"Were they pleasant rooms?"
"Not very. The chambers were in the third story, and small, and one of them had no window in it; being, as it were, a large recess, or closet, opening off from the main chamber."
Mrs. Lawton shook her head.
"Is it large enough for a double bed?" she asked, after pausing a few moments.
"O, yes; plenty large enough for that. But warm weather is coming on, and it will be a very hot and uncomfortable place."
"A much pleasanter situation might be found at the same price, I would think," Mrs. Lawton said.
"No doubt of it. And tomorrow I will look around again."
On the next day Mr. Lawton resumed his search, but with not even the success of the first trial. He found plenty of boarding-houses, of course, but some charged too high, while others could not offer such accommodations as his family required. The third day closed with no better prospect of getting an agreeable boarding-house.
"I suppose we shall have to put up with that which is nearest to our idea of comfort and convenience, among the many places at which I have called," Mr. Lawton said, as he sat alone with his wife, on the evening of the third day of the search.
"I am afraid that we shall."
"Which do you like best, of those under twenty-five dollars a week?"
"Really, I can hardly tell. But I seem to prefer that in Walnut Street, with the parlor and two chambers, at twenty-two dollars a week. Still, I do not like the room with no window."
"No, nor I."
"It could not make much difference now, but hot weather will be here in a few weeks. Still, I don't see what else we can do."
"I am afraid that we shall never get another place like this," Mr. Lawton remarked. "Our own friends could not have been kinder; and these rooms are delightful."
"No, indeed, that we will not."
"But there is no time to lose. The day after tomorrow Mrs. Baillie's sale takes place, and, therefore, we cannot stay more than one night after this, at the farthest."
This was bringing the matter down to a point that could not be evaded, and so, after talking it over for an hour or so, it was finally concluded to remove on the next day to the house where a parlor and two small chambers were furnished, with boarding, at twenty-two dollars a week. This being settled, the removal was effected in due time.
How well Mr. and Mrs. Lawton were pleased with their new home, will appear by the following conversation which occurred after the children had retired for the evening, about a month from the time of their removal from Mrs. Baillie's.
"What is this?" asked Mr. Lawton, as his wife handed him a long bill.
"It is a bill for extras that Mrs. Newell sent up this afternoon."
"For extras?"
"Yes, so she calls them."
"Twenty dollars in a month for extras! Really, I don't understand it!"
"Nor did I at first. But, I believe I see into it now."
"Then I wish you would enlighten me, Julia," Mr. Lawton said, "for it is all dark to my mind."
"You know that we have always been in the habit of sending Margaret down for a pie, or something of that kind, towards bed-time."
"Yes."
"Well, you will see a pie, or cakes, or bread and butter, charged regularly every day in the bill at twenty-five cents."
"Let me see. Ah, yes! here it is."
"And then you will see as regularly put down, 'luncheon for Mrs. Lawton and children at eleven o'clock.'"
"Yes, I see that also. And the charge is twenty-five cents more."
"And then there is a charge for every time the children received bread and butter through the day; and fifty cents a meal for all our visitors. And you know that mother is here at least once a week, and stays for tea."
"O yes, I fully comprehend it all now!" Mr. Lawton said, half laughing, and half disposed to feel indignant, as the first clear idea glanced through his mind.
"Well, isn't it abominable?" remarked his wife, in a somewhat excited tone.
"I don't know, Julia, now I come to think of it, that we have any particular right to complain," he replied. "We pay for three meals a day, and there our contract ends. If we wantextras, we must pay for them, of course. That is the rule, no doubt, and our surprise is occasioned by our not having been acquainted with the rule."
"We pay for our boarding, and I am sure that ought to include enough to eat. But it seems that it does not, neither first nor last. We give more by seven dollars a week, than we did at Mrs. Baillie's, and the fare isn't half so good. And there they never thought of charging us for what was eaten between meals."
"Nor is anything so pleasant as it was there," added Mr. Lawton. "The house is not kept so clean, nor are the boarders as agreeable as were the young men we had at Mrs. Baillie's."
"Indeed they are not. And as to that Mrs. Phipps, who sits just opposite to us at the table, I cannot bear her. Every day, almost, she comes up and sits with me for an hour or two, and worries me almost to death with her tittle-tattle. She speaks well of no one, and often talks about things of which I do not wish Florence to hear, compelling me to send her away, out of hearing range."
"Really, that is an annoyance!"
"It is, indeed! And so sure as I happen to say, in her presence, that I intend walking out, she will propose to go with me."
"I would rather not have you seen in the street with Mrs. Phipps," Mr. Lawton remarked in a grave tone.
"Why not, dear? Do you know anything about her?" asked Mrs. Lawton, eagerly.
"No, Julia. Only, I neither like her appearance nor her manners."
"Nor, do I. At first I could not help myself. But I take good care now. But this is not the worst. Her Lizzy is a girl of very bad behavior, and I can't keep her away from Florence when she is home from school; unless I drive her right downstairs. And that I don't like to do; for I can see that her mother is a woman of high temper, and I dread to have any difficulty with her."
"Still, Julia, our duty to our children is to protect them, by all possible means, from every association that may injure them. If you really think that it has a bad effect upon Florence to associate with Lizzy Phipps, you ought, by all means, to keep them apart."
"But Lizzy is in the habit of walking into our room as soon as Florence comes home."
"Then you will have to tell her plainly, that she must not do so. How much better is it that her mother should be angry — than our child corrupted."
"I feel the force of what you say; and I have thought the same myself," Mrs. Lawton replied. "And yet, I cannot but hesitate to offend, deliberately, a fellow-boarder."
"Nevertheless, you should resolutely determine to act from your clear convictions of right. And, surely, the moral health of your children is a motive strong enough to determine you to offend anyone who is willing to be offended, because you use every means in your power to protect them from improper influences."
"I see the truth you utter, dear husband! And not only see it, but feel its force," Mrs. Lawton said.
"Then, for your children's sake, endeavor to act in obedience to that truth."
"I will try," was the simple, but earnest answer.
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