“You old honeymooner! Say, I’ve got an idea. I wonder if we couldn’t sneak in a look inside of one of these bungalows. Let’s try this door.”
He shook the door-knob of a bungalow so new that laths and mortar were still scattered about the yard. The door was locked. He tried the windows as well. But he could not get in. Three other bungalows they tried, and the fourth, the last of the row, was already occupied. But they did steal up on the porch of one bungalow, and they exclaimed like children when they beheld the big living-room, the huge fireplace, the built-in shelves and, beyond the living-room, what seemed to be the dining-room, with an enormous chandelier which may not, perhaps, have been of the delicate reticence of a silver candlestick, but whose jags and blobs of ruby and emerald and purple glass filled their hearts with awe.
“We will get one of these houses!” Father vowed. “I thought you’d like them. I swear, I’ll cut out my smoking, if necessary. Say! Got another idea! I wonder if we couldn’t make up some excuse and butt into the bungalow that’s been rented, and see how it looks furnished. I understand there’s some new-comers living there. We’ll sort of make them a neighborly call.”
“Oh, do you think we ought to?”
Mother, she who had faced a sheriff’s shot-gun, was timorous about facing an irate matron, and she tagged hesitatingly after Father as he marched along the row of bungalows, up the steps of the one that was rented, and rang the bell.
The door was opened by a maid, in a Lipsittsville version of a uniform.
“Lady or gent o’ the house in?” asked Father, airily sticking his new derby on one side of his head and thrusting a thumb in an armhole, very impudent and fresh and youthful.
“No, sir,” said the maid, stupidly.
Mother sighed. To tell the truth, she had wanted to see the promised land of this bungalow.
“Well, say, girl, Mrs. Appleby and I are thinking of renting one of these here bungalonies, like the fellow says, and I wonder if we could take a look at this house, to see how it looks furnished?”