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Page 11
"You said there was another guest-room," he reminded her presently. "The
bachelor's room. Is it next door?"
They went together to look at the bachelor's room. Burns surveyed it with
satisfaction.
"The jolliest room for the purpose I ever saw," he confessed. "And I know
the bachelor who will sleep in it. He's downstairs now, in the small room
out of ours."
"Bob? Why, Red--"
"We'll have a door cut through. The telephones shall be in there, then
they won't disturb you. They won't bother Bob a minute. And when I come
in at 2 a.m. I can slip in here, shove the boy over against the wall, and
be asleep in two minutes."
"Red! All my preparations for the bachelor! The desk,--the reading-light
by the bed--"
"They suit me admirably. I never saw a better arrangement. The two rooms
together make a perfect suite--when the door is cut through."
"And where will you put our guests? There's only one more room on this
floor, of any size."
"Let's go and see."
Catching up a brass candlestick from the bachelor's desk, Burns lit it
and proceeded to explore, Ellen following. There were dancing lights in
her eyes as she watched him.
"Here's your fourth room," said he, throwing open a door at the back of
the hall.
"This box? It can't be made a really comfortable room, even if I do my
best with it. Your bachelor will not stay long."
"Best not make him too comfortable. Nobody wants him to stay long." And
Red Pepper closed the door again, with an air of having settled the
matter to his entire satisfaction. "Besides," he added, "if he's really a
desirable chap, and we want him around more than a day or two, he can
bunk in my old room downstairs. When he's not there I'll use it for an
annex to my offices. Somebody's always needing to be put to bed for an
hour or two. Amy Mathewson will revel in that extra space. Her long suit
is making people comfortable, and smoothing the upper sheet under their
chins."
"Redfield Pepper, please consider this carefully," said his wife, as they
returned to the gray-and-rose room. "Remember how long you have had that
downstairs room,--you are attached to it, perhaps, more than you think.
You have been a bachelor yourself a good while--"
"And am supposed to be old and set in my ways," interpolated her
listener. He stood before her with folded arms, a judicial expression on
his brow. Beneath his coppery hair his black eyebrows drew together a
little above a pair of hazel eyes which sparkled with a whimsical light
which somewhat impaired the gravity of the expression.
"You are wonted to your ways--naturally," Ellen pursued. "It will not be
so convenient for you, having your rooms up here. I am quite contented
there, with you, and not in the least afraid with Cynthia sleeping down
there too--and the little bachelor. Think twice, Red, before you decide
on this arrangement."
He glanced at the wall between the two rooms. "Where would be a good
place to have the door cut through? What's behind that curtain? A
clothes-press?"
He advanced to the curtain and swept it aside. It hung in a doorway, and
was of a heavy gray material, with an applied border of the gray-and-rose
chintz. As he moved it light burst through from the other side of the
wall, and Burns found himself looking into the "bachelor's room" next
door.
He turned, with a shout of laughter. "You witch!" he cried, and returning
to his wife laid a hand on either richly colouring cheek, gently forcing
her face upward, so that he could look directly into it. "You meant it,
all the while!"
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