And for it I'm making a special summer rate, with board, of only twenty-five dollars a week for two." "We'll take it," said Matilda.
"Very well.

Now the deposit--how much can you pay ?" "Ah--er--say fifteen dollars ?" Mrs.Gilbert's hands that tried to seem indifferent to money and that yet were remarkably prompt, took the bills Matilda held out and thrust them into the folds of her voluminous gown.
"Thank you.

Breakfast Sunday mornings from eight to ten.

Good-night." And with that her large pink-tinted ladyship made a rustling exit.
Mrs.De Peyster sank overcome into a chair, drew up her veil, and gazed about her.

The other of Mrs.Gilbert's "easy"-chairs had a seat of faded and frayed cotton tapestry; there was a lumpy and unstable-looking couch; a yellow washstand with dandruffy varnish and cracked mirror; wall-paper with vast, uncataloguable flowers gangrenous in suggestion; on the ceiling a circle of over-plump dancing Cupids; and over against one wall a huge, broad, dark box that to Mrs.De Peyster's amazed vision suggested an upended coffin, contrived for the comfort of some deceased with remarkable width of shoulder.
"Matilda!" she shiveringingly ejaculated.