"You will not be troubled with either lady or nurse-maid," said he. "I take charge of the child myself. You will not know that he is in the house."
"There will be no one but myself and my little boy," he replied, ever politely, but ever, as it seemed, to me, with repressed pain or irritation.
"So!" said the woman, treating him to a long, curious, unsparing look of wonder and inquiry, which made me feel hot all over. He returned the glance quietly and unsmilingly. After a pause she said:
"Well, I suppose I must see about it, but it will be the first child I ever took into the house, in that way, and only as a favor to Herr Helfen."
I was greatly astonished, not having known before that I stood in such high esteem. Courvoisier threw me a smiling glance as we followed the woman up the stairs, up to the top of the house, where I lived. Throwing open a door, she said there were two rooms which must go together. Courvoisier shook his head.
"I do not want two rooms," said he, "or rather, I don't think I can afford them. What do you charge?"
"If it were so much," said he, naming a smaller sum, "I could do it."
"_Nie!_" said the woman, curtly, "for that I can't do it. _Um Gotteswillen!_ One must live."
She paused, reflecting, and I watched anxiously. She was going to refuse. My heart sunk. Rapidly reviewing my own circumstances and finances, and making a hasty calculation in my mind, I said:
"Why can't we arrange it? Here is a big room and a little room. Make the little room into a bedroom, and use the big room for a sitting-room. I will join at it, and so it will come within the price you wish to pay."
The woman's face cleared a little. She had listened with a clouded expression and her head on one side. Now she straightened herself, drew herself up, smoothed down her apron, and said:
"Yes, that lets itself be heard. If Herr Helfen agreed to that, she would like it."
"Oh, but I can't think of putting you to the extra expense," said Courvoisier.
"I should like it," said I. "I have often wished I had a little more room, but, like you, I couldn't afford the whole expense. We can have a piano, and the child can play there. Don't you see?" I added, with great earnestness and touching his arm. "It is a large airy room; he can run about there, and make as much noise as he likes."