Mr. Parsons confirmed
this intelligence on the following day in a personal interview. He
informed Littleton that he was going to build in order to please his
wife and daughter, and intimated that expense need not stand in the way
of the gratification of their wishes. After the business matters were
disposed of he was obviously ready to intrust all the artistic details
to his architect. Consequently Littleton enjoyed an agreeable quarter of
an hour of exaltation. He was pleased at the prospect of building a
house of this description, and the hope of being able to give free scope
to his architectural bent without molestation made that prospect
roseate. He could desire no better opportunity for expressing his ideas
and proving his capacity. It was an ideal chance, and his soul thrilled
as he called up the shadowy fabric of scheme after scheme to fill the
trial canvas of his fantasy. Nor did he fail to award due credit to
Selma for her share in the transaction; not to the extent, perhaps, of
confessing incapacity on his own part, but by testifying lovingly to her
cleverness. She was in too good humor at her success to insist on his
humiliation in set terms. The two points in which she was most vitally
interested--the advantage of her own interference and the consequent
prompt extension of her husband's field of usefulness--had been
triumphantly proved, and there was no need that the third--Wilbur's lack
of capacity to battle and discriminate for himself--should be
emphasized.
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