"I have only just arrived."
"I do hope you are going to make us a visit," said Mr. Tarbox, cordially.
"Thank you!" answered Frank, cheered by this warm reception. "If you are sure it won't inconvenience you."
"Inconvenience me! We shall be delighted to have you with us."
"You must come up and see Mrs. Tarbox. She will be delighted to see you."
Mr. Tarbox lived over his store. There was a door from the street adjoining the shop front. Mr. Tarbox opened it with a pass-key, and conducted Frank upstairs, ushering him into a gloomy parlor, with stiff, straightbacked chairs, ranged at regular intervals along the sides of the room, and a marble-topped center table, with two or three books lying upon it. There was a framed engraving, representing Washington crossing the Delaware, over the mantel, and two plaster figures and similar ornaments on the mantelpiece. The whole aspect of the room chilled Frank.
"Wait here, and I will call my wife," said Mr. Tarbox.
Frank sat down on a hard sofa and awaited the entrance of Mrs. Tarbox.
She came in, a tall, thin woman, about as handsome for a woman as her husband was for a man. Indeed, they were very well matched. She was quite as mean as he, and between them they managed to make annually a sensible addition to their world possessions.
Mr. Tarbox privately hinted his hopes respecting Frank to his wife, and she instantly agreed that it would be a most eligible arrangement.