"You certainly have, hand and foot," said Amos.
The matter was not mentioned again directly. But the little scene rankled with Amos. A week or so later he said at supper, "Lydia, I'm thinking seriously of moving."
"Moving! Where? Why?" exclaimed Lydia.
"Well, I can borrow enough money, I find, to add to the rent we're paying, to rent the old stone house next to Miss Towne's. My idea is to move there just till you finish college! Then we'll go out on a farm. But it'll give you your chance, Lydia."
"Land!" murmured Lizzie.
Lydia hesitated. To move into the house next the Townes would be to arrive, to enter the inner circle, to cease to be a dowd. But—she looked about the familiar rooms.
"Daddy," she said, "would you really want to leave this cottage?"
"I'd just as soon," replied Amos. "Most places are alike to me since your mother's death. I could stand doing without the garden, if I had the farm to look forward to."
"How'd we pay the money back?" asked Lydia.
"After the Levine bill passes," said Amos, "I'll have a section of pines."