He seemed
to be sorry--indeed, I should think he was a reasonable and sensible
man--but he said that he was building to please Mrs. Parsons, and we
both agreed that under the circumstances it was necessary that she
should make a fresh start. He asked me to send my bill, and we parted on
the best of terms. So it is all over, and except from the point of view
of dollars and cents, I am very glad. Only the remembrance that you had
set your heart on my making this my masterpiece, prevented me from
throwing over the contract weeks ago. Tell me, Selma _mia_, that you
approve of what I have done and congratulate me." He pulled forward his
chair so that he might see her face without interference from the lamp
and leaned toward her with frank appeal.
"Yes, I had set my heart on it, and you knew it. Yet you preferred to
give up this fine opportunity to show what you could do and to get
business worth having rather than sacrifice your own ideas as to how a
house should be built to the ideas of the women who were to live in it.
I dare say I should agree with them, and that the things which they
wished and you objected to were things I would have insisted on having."
Littleton started as though she had struck him in the face.
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