“I guess I'd better,” said Marcia.
“All right; then I'll take a back seat from this out.”
“Oh, I do hope it won't be too much!” sighed the young wife. “I'm so tired, looking.”
“You can come right along up,” the landlady called down through the oval spire formed by the ascending hand-rail of the stairs.
They found her in a broad, low room, whose ceiling sloped with the roof, and had the pleasant irregularity of the angles and recessions of two dormer windows. The room was clean and cosey; there was a table, and a stove that could be used open or shut; Marcia squeezed Bartley's arm to signify that it would do perfectly—if only the price would suit.
The landlady stood in the middle of the floor and lectured: “Now, there! I get five dollars a week for this room; and I gen'ly let it to two gentlemen. It's just been vacated by two gentlemen unexpectedly; and it's hard to get gentlemen at this time the year; and that's the reason I thought of takin' you. As I say, I don't much like ladies for inmates, and so I put in the window 'for gentlemen only.' But it's no use bein' too particular; I can't have the room layin' empty on my hands. If it suits you, you can have it for four dollars. It's high up, and there's no use tryin' to deny it. But there aint such another view as them winders commands anywheres. You can see the harbor, and pretty much the whole coast.”
“Anything extra for the view?” said Bartley, glancing out.
“No, I throw that in.”
“Does the price include gas and fire?” asked Marcia, sharpened as to all details by previous interviews.
“It includes the gas, but it don't include the fire,” said the landlady, firmly. “And it's pretty low at that, as you've found out, I guess.”