“I would rather not,” said Joshua, reluctantly.
“Then, if you room alone, you must expect to pay for the privilege.”
“I don’t know any gentleman to room with.”
“I tell you what you can do,” said the landlady, after a pause; “you may go into the room at once, and pay me five dollars a week, on condition that if I find another gentleman to room with you, you will agree to take him in with you.”
“I might not like him.”
“I don’t take any but respectable gentlemen,” said Mrs. Foster. “You may be sure that I won’t ask you to take any improper person to room with you. However, do as you please. I would just as lief let the room to you alone at eight dollars a week. I should make just as much money, and very likely more.”
Joshua thought it over, and the more he thought of it, the more inclined he was to accept Mrs. Foster’s proposal. He would prefer, of course, to room alone, unless he could have some friend like Sam Crawford for his roommate. But he was by no means inclined to pay three dollars a week extra for the privilege. He liked money better than privacy, and besides, he had only four hundred dollars left, and he felt that he could not afford it. Besides, again, it might be some time before another person applied for board, and meanwhile he would have the entire room for only five dollars.
“I think I will take the room,” he said, “and you can put another gentleman with me. When can I come in?”
“How soon do you want to come?”
“Right away. I can’t afford to stay at a hotel--it costs too much.”