"
"I think I like brighter colors than you do, Wilbur," mused Selma. "I
used to consider things like that as wrong; but I suppose that was
because our fathers wished Europe to understand that we disapproved of
the luxury of courts and the empty lives of the nobility. But if people
here with purpose have money, it would seem sensible to furnish their
houses prettily."
"Subject always to the crucifying canons of art," laughed Littleton.
"I'm glad you're coming round to my view, Selma. Only I deny the ability
of the free-born American, with the overflowing purse, to indulge his
newly acquired taste for gorgeous effects without professional
assistance."
"I suppose so. I can see that their house is crude, though I do think
that they have some handsome things. It must be interesting to walk
through shops and say: 'I'll take that,' just because it pleases you."
During her first marriage Selma had found the problem of dollars and
cents a simple one. The income of Lewis Babcock was always larger than
the demands made upon it, and though she kept house and was familiar
with the domestic disbursements, questions of expenditure solved
themselves readily. She had never been obliged to ask herself whether
they could afford this or that outlay.
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