Boston, and I'm building a house to suit myself. And if money can do it, guess I'm going to be suited." 

 "It seems very delightful," said Corey, "and very original." 

 "Yes, sir. That fellow hadn't talked five minutes before I saw that he knew what he was about every time." 

 "I wish mamma would come!" breathed Irene again.  "I shall certainly go through the floor if papa says anything more." 

 "They are making a great many very pretty houses nowadays," said the young man.  "It's very different from the old-fashioned building." 

 "Well," said the Colonel, with a large toleration of tone and a deep breath that expanded his ample chest, "we spend more on our houses nowadays. I started out to build a forty-thousand-dollar house. Well, sir! that fellow has got me in for more than sixty thousand already, and I doubt if I get out of it much under a hundred. You can't have a nice house for nothing. It's just like ordering a picture of a painter. You pay him enough, and he can afford to paint you a first-class picture; and if you don't, he can't. That's all there is of it. Why, they tell me that A. T. Stewart gave one of those French fellows sixty thousand dollars for a little seven-by-nine picture the other day. Yes, sir, give an architect money enough, and he'll give you a nice house every time." 

 "I've heard that they're sharp at getting money to realise their ideas," assented the young man, with a laugh. 

 "Well, I should say so!" exclaimed the Colonel.  "They come to you with an improvement that you can't resist. It has good looks and common-sense and everything in its favour, and it's like throwing money away to refuse. And they always manage to get you when your wife is around, and then you're helpless." 

 The Colonel himself set the example of laughing at this joke, and the young man joined him less obstreperously. The girls turned, and he said, "I don't think I ever saw this view to better advantage. It's surprising how well the Memorial Hall and the Cambridge spires work up, over there. And the sunsets must be magnificent." 

 Lapham did not wait for them to reply. 

 "Yes, sir, it's about the sightliest view I know of. I always did like the water side of Beacon. Long before I owned property here, or ever expected to, m'wife and I used to ride down this way, and stop the buggy to get this 

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