"Yes, but, Helen, dearest, I know we can't--" But "Helen, dearest," was already halfway up the adjoining walk; and Burke, with a despairing glance at her radiant, eager face, followed her. There was, indeed, no other course open to him, as he knew, unless he chose to make a scene on the public thorough-fare--and Burke Denby did not like scenes. The house was found to be as attractive inside as it was out; and Helen's progress from room to room was a series of delighted exclamations. She was just turning to go upstairs when her husband's third desperate expostulation brought her feet and her tongue to a pause. "Helen, darling, I tell you we can't!" he was exclaiming. "It's out of the question." "Burke!" Her lips began to quiver. "And when you know how much I want it!" "Sweetheart, don't, please, make it any harder for me," he begged. "I'd give you a dozen houses like this if I could--and you know it. But we can't afford even this one. The rent is forty dollars. I heard her tell you when she gave you the key." "Never mind. We can economize other ways." "But, Helen, I only get sixty all told. We can't pay forty for rent." "Oh, but, Burke, that leaves twenty, and we can do a lot on twenty. Just as if what we ate would cost us that! I don't care for meat, anyhow, much. We'll cut that out. And I hate grapefruit and olives. They cost a lot. Mrs. Allen was always having them, and--" The distraught husband interrupted with an impatient gesture. "Grapefruit and olives, indeed! And as if food were all of it! Where are our clothes and coal and--and doctor's bills, and I don't-know-what-all coming from? Why, great Scott, Helen, I smoke half that in a week, sometimes,--not that I shall now, of course," he added hastily. "But, honestly, dearie, we simply can't do it. Now, come, be a good girl, and let's go on. We're simply wasting time here." Helen, convinced at last, tossed him the key, with a teary "All right--take it back then. I shan't! I know I should c-cry right before her!" The next minute, at sight of the abject woe and dismay on her husband's face, she flung herself upon him with a burst of sobs. "There, there, Burke, here I am, so soon, making a fuss because we can't afford things! But I won't any more--truly I won't! I was a mean, horrid old thing! Yes, I was," she reiterated in answer to his indignant denial. "Come, let's go quick!" she exclaimed, pulling herself away, and lifting her head superbly. "I don't want the old place, anyhow. Truly, I don't!" And, with a dazzling smile, she reached out her hand and tripped enticingly ahead of him toward the door; while the man, bewildered, but enthralled by this extraordinary leap from fretful stubbornness to gay docility, hurried after her with an incoherent jumble of rapturous adjectives.