The old man smiled and shook his head.
“Isn’t that enough to keep a house on—a very small house, you know?”
The old man shook his head again.
“And how much would be enough?” queried the youth.
“I don’t think any young couple should commence housekeeping on less than a thousand a-year.”
Evelyn looked in blank amazement at his host.
“A thousand a-year!” he exclaimed.
“That was the amount I mentioned,” replied the old gentleman, with some asperity.
“But I shall never make such an income,” he said, in great despondency.
“Then you should never get married,” added the philosopher, calmly. Feeling, however, that he had been a little too harsh in his manner, he went on,—