"I will put a bed into either room," said the landlady. "I have delayed doing it till the rooms were let."
"How do you like it, mother?" asked Paul.
"Very well, but——"
Mrs. Hoffman hesitated, thinking that the charge for such accommodations would be beyond their means. Paul understood, and asked in his turn:
"How much do you ask for these rooms by the month?"
"With the small room upstairs besides?"
"Yes."
"Thirty dollars a month."
Mrs. Hoffman looked at Paul in dismay. This was more than three times what they had been accustomed to pay.
"We can afford to pay more than we have hitherto," he said in a low voice. "Besides, there is the furniture."