"Yes."
"Have you it here?" Joe produced the contract, and John compared it with the bill. "You see, Joe, there are so many extras; and every one adds something to the cost. At first you meant to have the bedroom open from the parlour; then you concluded to have closets between; then you decided to have one of them with a window, and the other fitted with shelves and drawers, and so on; then you connected the bedroom with the kitchen by a passage—"
"Well, well, I know," interrupted Joseph, impatiently; "but surely all that could not make such a great difference."
"Then you had the parlour finished very differently from the style you proposed to me," pursued John. "You had a cornice,—and an expensive one at that,—and windows down to the floor, and long blinds, and large panes. No, Joe, I don't think Carr has cheated you; though he ought to have told you, as he went along, how much each of these alterations would cost."
"There it is!" said Joe. "He kept saying,—'Oh, that won't make much difference; that will be a mere trifle;' and so on. I didn't know,—how should I? The fact is, John, I ought not to have had Carr. I was a fool for my pains: that's all." He was silent for a few minutes, and then said, gloomily, "So you think I have nothing to do but to pay the bill?"
"I think so."
"And so all that money goes; and for what? Why, for things we might just as well have done without, after all. What are we the better for having a grand parlour?"
John did not say, "I told you so!" That was not his way. He only remarked,—
"Why, the parlour is a very pretty parlour, and the bedroom is certainly convenient, and will save Agnes a good many steps in the course of the day; and, if you wished to sell the house—"
"But I don't want to sell it," said Joe, rather impatiently. "I want a house to call my own and have my children grow up in and remember as home. And, after all," he continued, brightening up a little, "there is no hurry about the matter. Carr is willing to wait,—even to take a second mortgage, if we don't want to pay him directly."