Basil looked approval. “That’s what I think,” he said. “When I plan houses I don’t intend to build a whole row with Japanese roofs and Moorish windows and colonial porches. That’s the kind of hodge-podge you see nowadays. I wouldn’t live in such a house if I owned a whole block.”
“This is where Basil waxes eloquent. Start him off on the subject of inartistic modern buildings, and you will hear him at his best,” informed Persis, roguishly.
Nevertheless, the judgment of the prospective architect did prove of such value that when Mrs. Brown had been made to see the possibilities of the little house, she felt that the moderate price at which it was to be obtained secured her a great bargain, since it left her a margin for repairs and alterations, making the entire outlay fall below what she had determined she could afford. In consequence, within a reasonable time the dingy unattractive dwelling was transformed into a most homelike abode, in which the Holmes family, with Porter and Basil added, took almost as much interest as the Browns themselves.
“Oh, Persis,” said Annis, one Saturday afternoon, when Mrs. Brown’s boarding-house was a thing of the past, “you don’t know what a relief it is to have a home all to ourselves, and how delightful it is to have real, sure enough relations only two blocks away. Isn’t it funny for me to call your grandma Aunt Persis, and your mamma Cousin Mary?”
“They like it,” returned Persis, comfortably settling herself among the cushions on Annis’s window-seat.
“Audrey Vane has been over twice to see me,” informed Annis. “Her brother is quite a chum of Basil Phillips, Audrey told me.”
“Yes, he is,” returned Persis, shortly, looking a trifle vexed.
“Audrey is as sweet as honey to me,” Annis went on, a little gleam of merriment coming into her eyes. “She has invited me to luncheon, and, oh, Persis, it is so absurd to see the reverential tone she uses in speaking of the ancestors. Nice old persons they were, no doubt, but probably they had as many faults as the rest of the world, and I’m sure the knowledge of them hasn’t changed me in the least; yet you would suppose they had in some way invested me with new virtues. I really believe Audrey thinks so, she is so extra attentive.”
Persis was looking somewhat cross, the truth being that she was a trifle jealous of Annis, and felt that these overtures of Audrey’s rather encroached upon her rights as a friend, and she very soon took her departure with a certain stiffness which Annis could not understand.
“Persis looks like a thunder cloud,” declared Lisa. “What’s wrong, Tommy?”