"You are the first to break bread with us," said Gwen to Kenneth Hilary as she handed him a cup of tea. "How do you like our cottage? We are so proud of it that it is a perfect joy to show it off. Don't you think we have a fine fireplace?"
The young man looked around the room. "It is charming, perfectly charming," he said. "Who planned it?"
"We did it all ourselves, Aunt Cam and I."
"You have reason to be proud. I congratulate you upon having the artistic sense to keep to simple lines. They're mighty good ones, too. This is a jolly room, just enough in it for cosiness."
"Aunt Cam has one room full of her ponderous furniture, her books and family relics, but we tried to choose judiciously in furnishing the rest of the house. Auntie said she was tired of paying storage, and we cannot keep up much of an establishment in the city. She hated to part with her heirlooms and it was a problem to know what to do with them till it suddenly occurred to us to build a cottage here, call it our home and spill over into it such things as we could not use in the city. So you see the result. We think our household gods are as safe here as they would be in a storage warehouse, and between times there is no storage to pay. We do not have to wear ourselves out in trying to decide where we shall spend our summers in order to escape the heat, and we think we are very sensible people to have come to such a conclusion as we did."
"You were sensible. I wouldn't mind a shack here myself, for I never saw a spot more to my liking. But, alas, an impecunious artist can't indulge in any such dreams till he has made his ten-strike. I was glad enough to accept Nell's suggestion that I chip in with her this summer and come up here, for it gives me the chance to get at the kind of work I have been longing to do, and to work out some illustrations I have on hand. They are rather jolly to slash away at when one can sit in the cool and do them, though ordinarily I can't stand much of that sort of thing."
"I am afraid you are an impatient sort of somebody," remarked Gwen.
"Yes, I am afraid I am. I hate to be hedged about by conditions, and I hate to do things I don't like to do."
"Who doesn't?" returned Gwen. "But we have to. It's part of our development. I don't think anyone has the right to please only himself."
"Oh no, of course not, and we don't get the chance to, even granting we had the right. But I don't see the use of deliberately choosing unpleasant things to do."