“I see,” he said gravely, giving Clytie Dodd another keen look. “You must be like your mother,” she said, smiling. “She seemed to me so interested in just people. And she read me like a book. Or perhaps you are a psychologist?” “You couldn’t give me a greater compliment than to tell me I’m like mother. She’s always like that, interested in everybody about her, and wondering what circumstances helped to form them as they are.” “It was your mother that gave me the idea of fixing up this old house on nothing.” She gave a laughing deprecatory glance about. “I was just awfully unhappy and discouraged at having to leave college and go to a poor little house in a new neighborhood, and she managed to leave with me the suggestion of making it all over in such a way that I could not get away from it.” “You certainly have done wonders,” he said with an admiring look about. “That was one reason I was so anxious to stay and look around me, the rooms opened up so charmingly and were such a surprise. You really have made a wonderful place out of it. This room, now, looks as if it might have come out of the hands of some big city decorator, and yet there is a charm and simplicity about it that is wholly in keeping with a quiet home life. I like it awfully. I wish mother could see it. Were those panels on the walls when you began?” “Oh, no. There was some horrible old faded red wall-paper, and in some places the plaster was coming off. Carey and I had a lot to do to this wall before we could even paint it. And there were so many layers of paper we thought we never would get it all scraped off.” “You had to do all that?” said the young man appreciatively. “It was good you had a brother to help in such rough, heavy work.” “Yes, Carey has been very much interested. Of course he hasn’t had so much time lately, as he could give only his evenings. He has been working all day. He built the fireplace in the living room too. I want you to look at that after dinner. I think it is very pretty for an amateur workman.” “He built that fireplace!” exclaimed Maxwell. “Well, he certainly did a great thing! I noticed it at once. It is the charm of the whole room, and so artistic in its lines. I love a beautiful fireplace, and I thought that was most unusual. I must look at it again. Your brother must be a genius.”