“I know that,” he continued, “but I dare say Lambert would take them off our hands.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” said Lucy; “but then he will make you pay something if he does. They are cut for our windows—and you always lose upon any thing they take back after it is cut.”
“I presume so; but that is not much.”
“Yes it is, considerable,” said Lucy, who, woman-like, clung to her curtains. “And it does seem a pity to pay for what one has not; particularly, too, when money is not over plenty.”
“True enough,” said Tom. “Well, we’ll see about it. I’ll see what Lambert says about it. If he is in no hurry to be paid, why, in the course of six months, I can settle it all.”
“Of course,” said Lucy, “he gives six months’ credit—that is what they all do. No one expects to be paid before six months.”
“Oh, if that’s so,” answered Tom, “the thing may as well rest as it is.”
“If that room were not so cold,” pursued Lucy, “I should not care so much about the curtains; but we really suffered for the want of them last winter.”
“At any rate, they are ordered,” said her husband, “and as you think Lambert wont take them off our hands without making me pay something down—so there let it rest. I don’t feel inclined to pay for what we don’t have, which is, as you say, provoking enough. In fact, I find it pretty tough to pay for what we do have, let alone what we don’t.”
In truth, Coolidge found it more convenient to have some hundreds charged, than to pay a bonus down, small though it might be. So Lucy secured her curtains.