"You've been buying too many steamship companies this week. Jerry. I'm sure of it. You're 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.' It's too bad you have a conscience. It must be fearfully inconvenient." And then as we came to the swimming pool, "Isn't it huge? And all of marble! You're the most luxurious creature. I was just wondering--" She paused.
"How many Blank Street families I could clean in it without even changing the water."
He laughed. "Build one. I'll pay for it."
"It would be _great_ for the boys and men, wouldn't it? But, then--" she sighed. "We haven't got our club yet."
"But you're going to have it, you know, when the day nursery is done."
"And this is where you--?" A pleading look from Jerry made her pause. "And do you pull all these ropes? What fun! I believe you could have fifty boys in here at once all playing and not one of them in the other's way."
We couldn't help smiling. In spite of herself, she was thinking in terms of her beloved Blank Street.
"You'll have to forgive me, Jerry, if I'm covetous. That's my besetting sin. But it _is_ a fine place--so spacious. And it _would_ make such an adorable laundry!"
"No. I won't dare to wish any more. The purse of Fortunatus brought him into evil ways. It must be terrible, Jerry, not to be able to want something."
"Yes. I suppose we all do that," she said, quickly finishing the discussion, but I think she had noticed the sudden drop in Jerry's voice.
From there we went to the museum to look over the specimens, and in a moment Una and Jerry were deep in a butterfly talk. There Jack and I left them, taking Mrs. Habberton into the main hall, where I rang for one of the maids who showed her to her room.
"Well," I asked of Jack. "What do you think of her?"
"What I think is of course a matter of no importance to Jerry. But since you ask, I don't mind telling you that I love her to distraction. Where are the boy's eyes? His ears? And all the rest of his receptive organs? If I were ten years younger--" and he patted his _embonpoint_ regretfully, "I'd ask something of her charity, something immediate and practical. She should found the John K. Ballard Home, Pope, a want of mine for many years. But, alas! She has eyes only for Jerry."