"You know it was you who were afraid of that bridge." The children, who knew the story by heart, laughed with their father at the monstrous pretension; and his simulated hilarity only increased upon paying a toll of two dollars at the Goat Island bridge.
"What extortion!" cried Isabel, with an indignation that secretly unnerved him.

He trembled upon the verge of confession; but he had finally the moral force to resist.

He suffered her to compute the cost of their stay at Niagara without allowing those three dollars to enter into her calculation; he even began to think what justificative extravagance he could tempt her to.

He suggested the purchase of local bric-a-brac; he asked her if she would not like to dine at the International, for old times' sake.

But she answered, with disheartening virtue, that they must not think of such a thing, after what they had spent already.