I suppose I looked blank.
"Oh, don't think I am not glad to admire it. I thought you were thinking of it for Aunt Allen's gift," continued Laura.
"And so I was. It costs just fifty dollars. But I think you are right about it. And, besides, do you like bronze, Laura?"
"I like marble a great, great deal best. There is a bronze statue of Fortune, and a Venus, at Harris & Stanwood's, that are called 'so beautiful!'—and I wouldn't have them in my house."
Here was an extinguisher. Laura didn't like bronze. And Laura was to be in my house, whether bronzes—were or not.
* * * * *
The sun shone brightly through the bitter-sweet that ran half over the window, and lighted on the corner of an old mahogany chest.
"That reminds me!" said I, suddenly. "Yesterday, I was looking at crockery, and there was the most delightful cabinet!—real Japan work, such as we read of; full of little drawers, and with carved silver handles, and a secret drawer that shoots out when you touch a spring at the back. Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing to stand in the parlor, Laura?"
"For what, Del? Could you keep silver in it? How large is it?"
"Why, no,—it wouldn't be large enough to hold silver. And, besides, I don't know that I want it for any such purpose. It would hold jewelry."