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“Did you get the refusal of it?”

“Yes. I told the landlord that I would give him an answer by to-morrow morning. He says there are a great many people after it; that he could have rented it a dozen times, if he had approved the tenants who offered. He says he knows Mr. Plunket very well, and will be happy to rent him the house.”

“We must take it, by all means.”

“That is, if Mr. Plunket is willing.”

“Willing! Of course, he’ll have to be willing.”

“Oh, it is such a love of a house, ma!”

“I’m sure it must be.”

“A very different kind of an affair from this, you may be certain.”

When Mr. Plunket came home that evening, his wife said to him, quite amiably–“Oh, you don’t know what, a love of a house I saw to-day up in Seventh street; larger, better, and more convenient than this in every way, and the rent is just the same.”

“But I am sure, Sarah, we are very comfortable here.”

“Comfortable! Good gracious, Mr. Plunket, I should like to know what you call comfort. How can any one be comfortable in such a miserable old rattletrap of a place as this?”

“You thought it a love of a house, you remember, before we came into it.”

“Me? Me? Mr. Plunket? Why, I never liked it; and it was all your fault that we ever moved here.”

“My fault?”

“Yes, indeed, it was all your fault. I wanted the house in Walnut street, but you were afraid of a little more rent. Oh, no, Mr. Plunket, you mustn’t blame me for moving into this barracks of a place; you have only yourself to thank for that; and now I want to get out of it on the first good opportunity.”

Poor Mr. Plunket was silenced. The very boldness of the position taken by his wife completely knocked him hors du combat. His fault, indeed! He would have lived on, year after year, in a log cabin, rather than encounter the horrors of moving; and yet he was in the habit of moving about once a year. What could he do now? He had yielded so long to his wife, who had grown bolder at each concession, that opposition was now hopeless. Had she stood alone, there might have been some chance for him; but backed up, as she was, by her puissant mother, victory was sure to perch on her banner; and well did Mr. Plunket know this.

“It will cost at least a hundred and fifty or two hundred dollars to move,” he ventured to suggest.

“Indeed, and it will cost no such thing. I’ll guaranty the whole removal for ten dollars.”

“It cost over a hundred last year.”

“Nonsense! it didn’t cost a fifth of it.”

But Mr. Plunket knew he had the best right to know, for he had paid the bills.

From the first, Mr. Plunket felt that opposition was useless. A natural repugnance to change and a horror of the disorder and discomfort of moving caused him to make a feeble resistance; but the opposing current swept strongly against him, and he had to yield.

The house in Seventh street was taken, and, in due time, the breaking up and change came. Carpets were lifted, boxes, barrels, and trunks packed, and all the disorderly elements of a regular moving operation called into activity. Every preparation had been made on the day previous to the contemplated flight; the cars were to be at the door by eight o’clock on the next morning. In anticipation of this early movement, the children had been dragged out of bed an hour before their usual time for rising. They were, in consequence, cross and unreasonable; but not more so than mother, grandmother, and nurse, all of whom either boxed them, scolded them, or jerked them about in a most violent manner. Breakfast was served early; but such a breakfast! the least said about that the better. It was well there were no keen appetites to turn away with disappointment.