"Oh, I wouldn't want to make you trouble," she said.  "You have been very kind already, and you have made the rent so reasonable! I'm afraid it isn't right and fair; it is such a lovely barn!" 

 "Perfectly fair," said Graham glibly.  "It will do the barn good to be lived in and taken care of again." 

 If he had been called upon to tell just what good it would do the barn to be lived in, he might have floundered out of the situation, perhaps; but he took care not to make that necessary. He went on talking. 

 "I will see that everything is in good order, the doors made all right, and the windows—I—that is, if I remember rightly there were a few little things needed doing to that barn that ought to be attended to before you go in. How soon did you want to take possession? I'll try to have it all ready for you." 

 "Oh, why, that is very kind," said Shirley.  "I don't think it needs anything; that is, I didn't notice anything, but perhaps you know best. Why, we have to leave our house the last of this month. Do you suppose we could have the rent begin a few days before that, so we could get things moved gradually? I haven't much time, only at night, you know." 

 "We'll date the lease the first of next month," said the young man quickly; "and then you can put your things in any time you like from now on. I'll see that the locks are made safe, and there ought to be a partition put in—just a simple partition, you know—at one end of the up-stairs room, where you could lock up things. Then you could take them up there when you like. I'll attend to that partition at once. The barn needs it. This is as good a time as any to put it in. You wouldn't object to a partition? That wouldn't upset any of your plans?" 

 He spoke as if it would be a great detriment to the barn not to have a partition, but of course he wouldn't insist if she disliked it. 

 "Oh, why, no, of course not," said Shirley, bewildered.  "It would be lovely. Mother could use that for her room, but I wouldn't want you to do anything on our account that you do not have to do anyway." 

 "Oh, no, certainly not, but it might as well be done now as any time, and you get the benefit of it, you know. I shouldn't want to rent the place without putting it in good order, and a partition is always needed in a barn, you know, if it's to be a really good barn." 

 It was well that no wise ones 

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