“And I’ll go with you. Let’s do it right this minute.”
16As she spoke, Catherine sprang up, and Algernon, his usual inertia overcome, plunged down the walk beside her.
“We must find a good place for it, before we get many books collected. We could use Father’s twenty-five dollars for rent, of course, but it would be so much nicer if some one would give us a room.”
“Let me see. There’s that little frame shop where the red-haired milliner used to be. We might get that. It’s no good for business, away off up the street that way.”
“Be careful what you say about red hair,” warned Catherine. “Who owns the building?”
“Judge Arthur. He’s a public-spirited man. He’ll let us have it cheap anyway.”
“Good! O, I am so happy and excited about it I feel like one of Hannah Eldred’s squeals; I’m afraid if she were here I’d join her in one. Here we are at Miss Ainsworth’s. Are you sure we dare ask her?”
Before the prim white house set back from the street, Catherine’s buoyancy suffered a collapse. She had been inside that house, calling, with her mother, but to go there–or anywhere–on a begging errand! Here Algernon’s long familiarity with rebuffs proved of value.
“Of course, we dare. Come on, or I’ll go alone if you don’t want to.”
