“No, dear; I really should not like to do that—it would be so very inconvenient. We are always wanting the room for workwomen or servants; besides, I keep my account books and other things there.”
“Then I'm afraid it must be on the second floor. Some of the children must be moved. The girl seems a nice girl with no nonsense about her, and won't mind sleeping up there. Or, why not put Katie upstairs?”
“Indeed, I should not think of it. Katie is a dear good girl, and I will not put anyone over her head.”
“Nor I, dear. On the contrary, I was asking you to put her over another person's head,” said Mr. Brown, laughing at his own joke, This unusual reluctance on the part of his wife to assist in carrying out any hospitable plans of his began to strike him; so, not being an adept at concealing his thoughts, or gaining his point by any attack except a direct one, after driving on for a minute in silence, he turned suddenly on his wife, and said,—
“Why, Lizzie, you seem not to want to ask the girl?”
“Well, John, I do not see the need of it at all.”
“No, and you don't want to ask her?”
“If you must know, then, I do not.”
“Don't you like her?”
“I do not know her well enough either to like or dislike.”