“Did you have a nice time?” asked Bartley, though he knew he need not.
“The best time I ever had in the world!” cried Marcia.
They discussed the whole affair; the two old people; Mr. Atherton, and how pleasant he was; the house and its splendors, which they did not know were hideous. “Bartley,” said Marcia at last, “I told Mrs. Halleck.”
“Did you?” he returned, in trepidation; but after a while he laughed. “Well, all right, if you wanted to.”
“Yes, I did; and you can't think how kind she was. She says we must have a house of our own somewhere, and she's going round with me in her carriage to help me to find one.”
“Well,” said Bartley, and he fetched a sigh, half of pride, half of dismay.
“Yes, I long to go to housekeeping. We can afford it now. She says we can get a cheap little house, or half a house, up at the South End, and it won't cost us any more than to board, hardly; and that's what I think, too.”
“Go ahead, if you can find the house. I don't object to my own fireside. And I suppose we must.”
“Yes, we must. Ain't you glad of it?”
They were in the shadow of a tall house, and he dropped his face toward the face she lifted to his, and gave her a silent kiss that made her heart leap toward him.