“Don’t you bother your head about this; just give me the money; I know what I want; I have the list all made out. I’ll buy them and fix them up and when everything is ready I’ll have you come up and look at them and tell me what you think. I know my taste is not as good as yours, but I’ll do the best I can.”
Please bear in mind that he was only a boy—just twenty-one years old—then you will understand perhaps why it was he fell for so old a story.
At this point you’ve got it all figured out. In your opinion she took the coin and simply faded away.
Nothing of the kind.
He saw her once every twenty-four hours at least and she reported progress, and then one day he got a note telling him to come up and see the new place.
She received him at the door herself and if the little flat had been a palace she couldn’t have been more delighted. It was so very fine that when she told him she had gone into debt just a little bit he promptly asked how much and paid up without even so much as a murmur. It was so easy that she ought to have given it back to him a little while just to hold.
When he went away he had a latch key and was about as proud a fellow as it was possible to be and walk straight.
As in a play so in a story—the finish is everything.
It must be good and it must be quick.
The earlier parts of the story or the scenes may lag, but nothing like that will do at the end.