CHAPTER XXIII
CONCLUSION
November had come and the Oakfield visitors were all gone,—I to my work as stenographer,—Rena to New York, and Tom to Newton, where Rex finally joined him. He was very well and seemed very happy as he took every car line in and out of the city, and read every advertisement of “Villas for Sale.” He had been with Tom into the six room flat, third floor, and had sniffed at it scornfully.
“Rena here!” he said, “in these little rooms, with an elevator to reach them! I tell you, Tom, it will never do, and I’ll have my way in this matter. That eighty thousand is going to do some good.”
“All right,” Tom finally said. “Go ahead, and see what Rena says.”
She was coming in a few days with her aunt to see the flat and decide on its furnishing, and Rex was quite as anxious about it as Tom, who anticipated a scene when she learned the truth. Mrs. Graham had objected to the flat, and had mentally objected to Tom, as a poor man. Reginald would have pleased her better. But she had no choice. Rena was to marry Tom and live in a flat, and was very happy and anxious to see both. Tom met them at the station and took them to the hotel where he had engaged rooms for them. It was too late when they arrived to see the flat that day, but Tom came early the next morning to take them to it in a very smart turnout. Rena had heard so much from her aunt of the economy she must practise as Tom’s wife, that the fine carriage and horses disturbed her as something Tom could not afford.
“I shall have to restrain him,” she thought, “for it is like him when he has one dollar to spend two.”
“Couldn’t we walk, or take a street-car?” she asked, and Tom replied: “Yes, but I am going to show you the city and some of the suburbs.”
It did not take long to reach the flat, and they were soon inspecting the rooms, at which Mrs. Graham looked askance, while Rena drew a quick breath, they were so much smaller than she had expected. Tom was in high spirits as he showed them through.
“This is the parlor,” he said, indicating the front room, “and this little nook out of it over the hall can be fitted up as a Japanese den. This room we will use for a library, where I can smoke and read. This is the dining-room, all furnished in oak. And the biggest room in the house with a fair outlook. Here is a sleeping-room, and bath-room, here the kitchen, here the servant’s room, small, to be sure, but less work to take care of; and here is what I consider best of all, a nice platform or open shed out of the kitchen where we can keep our truck. How do you like it?”
They had reached the open shed where they were to keep truck, of the nature of which Rena, who knew nothing of housekeeping, had no idea. She had followed Tom mechanically, with a feeling that her aunt’s gown rustled more than usual as they went from room to room. She did not quite know what she did think except that it was different from what she had expected. Evidently Tom was pleased and wished her to be, and with a catch of breath she said: