“Well,” said he, “I'll submit to the rent, but I really cannot give the premium, it is too ridiculous. He ought to bribe me to rent it, not I him.” “Can't be done without, sir.” “Well, I'll give a hundred pounds and no more.” “Impossible, sir.” “Then good morning. Now, dearest, just come and see the house at Harewood Square,--eighty-five pounds and no premium.” “Will you oblige me with your address, doctor?” said the agent. “Dr. Staines, Morley's Hotel.” And so they left Mayfair. Rosa sighed and said, “Oh, the nice little place; and we have lost it for two hundred pounds.” “Two hundred pounds is a great deal for us to throw away.” “Being near the Coles would soon have made that up to you: and such a cosey little nest.” “Well the house will not run away.” “But somebody is sure to snap it up. It is a Bijou.” She was disappointed, and half inclined to pout. But she vented her feelings in a letter to her beloved Florry, and appeared at dinner as sweet as usual. During dinner a note came from the agent, accepting Dr. Staine's offer. He glozed the matter thus: he had persuaded the owner it was better to take a good tenant at a moderate loss, than to let the Bijou be uninhabited during the present rainy season. An assignment of the lease--which contained the usual covenants--would be prepared immediately, and Dr. Staines could have possession in forty-eight hours, by paying the premium. Rosa was delighted, and as soon as dinner was over, and the waiters gone, she came and kissed Christopher. He smiled, and said, “Well, you are pleased; that is the principal thing. I have saved two hundred pounds, and that is something. It will go towards furnishing.” “La! yes,” said Rosa, “I forgot. We shall have to get furniture now. How nice!” It was a pleasure the man of forecast could have willingly dispensed with; but he smiled at her, and they discussed furniture, and Christopher, whose retentive memory had picked up a little of everything, said there were wholesale upholsterers in the City who sold cheaper than the West-end houses, and he thought the best way was to measure the rooms in the Bijou, and go to the city with a clear idea of what they wanted; ask the prices of various necessary articles, and then make a list, and demand a discount of fifteen per cent on the whole order, being so considerable, and paid for in cash. Rosa acquiesced, and told Christopher he was the cleverest man in England.