"Alas! no," I answered in some heat; "would you believe it, mother, the agent says the landlord will not let us the house if we make money in it."
"If we make money in it? I do not understand," answered mother. Her blue eyes were fixed on my face in an anxious way.
"Why, mother, darling, don't you know we meant to fill the house with paying guests."
"Oh, I forgot," said mother. "Home, Jenkins, as fast as possible."
Jenkins whipped up the horses, and we trotted home. Mother looked distinctly relieved.
"So you have not taken the house?" she said.
"I cannot get it," I answered. "It is more than provoking. What are we to do? I had taken such a fancy to the place."
"It did seem, for that benighted place, fairly cheerful," said my mother, "but, Westenra, there is a Providence guiding our paths. Doubtless Providence does not intend you to wreck your young life attending to lodgers."
"But, mother dear, don't you understand that we must do something for our living? It is disappointing, but we shall get over it somehow."
During the rest of that day mother refused even to discuss the boarding-house scheme. She seemed to think that because we could not get 17 Graham Square, there was no other house available for our purpose.