XXVIII VISITORS, SHILLING A DOZEN—OUR LEFT-HANDERS
The first week in June the French maid came to our room with a telegram for Mr. Edwards, announcing that Mr. and Mrs. Hutton would sail for home the following week.
We began to hunt for a place to live, beginning with the hotels and larger boarding-houses, and ending with the smaller ones. After a week of varied, and some very funny, experiences, we decided at last upon one house, principally because of its attractive court overlooked by pleasant verandas.
"With its glistening fountain and pretty shrubbery and flowers, how nice for our baby," I said. "How cool and refreshing are the sound of the water and the glimpse of green."
So, for baby's sake, the selection was made and our rooms engaged. Our landlady was a very dark brunette, and prided herself upon being a French Canadian, but——
"That man of mine," she sorrowfully said, "is a soggy Englishman, and you would hardly believe it possible he could be the father of our two beautiful daughters. Both of them are going to do well, but they don't take after their pa. The oldest is engaged to be married to a Stateser with nine businesses!"
By the "nine businesses" and "Stateser" I gathered from her explanation, which she volunteered in answer to my puzzled look, that the fortunate son-in-law-to-be was a Yankee living in a small town in the State of Vermont, and owning a little country store where woolen and cotton goods, silks and flannels, pottery, queen's-ware, hardware, groceries, grain, and so forth, were sold, the precursor of the department store. In her admiration of him, after each alleged "business" she affixed the, to her, high-sounding title of "merchant."
The second daughter, she told me, was learning to sing.