Lets try and peep in at this window, suggested Polly.
I agreed, and we did our best to see what was within; but the long iron-lattice that covered the four slits in the wide front doors, were covered from the inside. So we went to hunt up the agent.
His office was only a few blocks down Fourth avenue, so Polly and I hurried there before it should be closed for the day. A boy was told to accompany us and we were soon inspecting the premises. Our escort offered all the information he had heard in the real estate office.
This haint been on our books moren a day. I just hung out the sign this morning. The last man what lived here was an artist and he fixed up everything like you see it now. But he wanted the owner to take out the stable doors and put in a studio-winder, and when the owner wouldnt spend a cent, the artist up and moved. My boss said the next tenant would insist on having the doors taken out, so you might as well kick about them being here, and see if youse kin get the winder in.
Annes mimicry of the office-boy was perfect and her hearers laughed, but Mrs. Stewart had caught the significant words: Stable doors, and now she looked deeply concerned. Anne hastened to end her narrative when she saw her mothers expression.
So Polly and I went back to the agents, heard the price of the place, and paid down half a months rent to hold it until you all can go with us to-morrow morning to approve of our selection.
Oh, Anne! how much
was it a month? exclaimed Eleanor, eagerly, while Mrs. Stewart looked dubious over such recklessness.
One-fifty a month, and we can have a straight lease no humbugging about clauses.
And how many rooms, did you say, dear? gasped Mrs. Stewart.
I didnt say, mother, and I told Poll not to say more until after you see it in the morning.
But I like it, and it really does seem as if Providence sent us through that street, added Polly, sighing with content.
Eleanor, did you hear Anne say it had stable-doors? now ventured Mrs. Stewart, fearfully.
No! did you, Anne? Why would it have stable-doors?
Because in the days of horses and carriages, it was some rich mans private stable, laughed Anne, enjoying the horror on her mothers face.
A stable! Ha, ha, ha for a Maynard of Chicago! Oh ha, ha, ha! laughed Eleanor, rocking back and forth.
Even Mrs. Stewart had to laugh at the picture Eleanors exclamation suggested Mrs. Maynard and Barbara calling upon a member of their family who was living in an East Side stable!
Any doubt of this being just the place they wanted vanished in the morning when Anne and Polly proudly escorted Mrs. Stewart and Eleanor about their future domicile. True, it had all the ear-marks of a stable from the outside , but once you were within, there was only an artistic home to be seen. The ground-floor which had once held four stalls and a harness-room, with space for two carriages, was now partitioned off in a manner that made the most of the space. A large living-room across the front acted as entrance-hall and passageway to the rear rooms and second floor. In the corner of the living-room, where the small brick chimney had served as smoke-vent for the stove of former days, there now was a wide tiled fire-place which would hold great logs.
Double glass-paneled doors led from the front room to the dining-room with its two high-set square windows opening to the sunlight in the rear. Also a single door went to the kitchen, which also had two high windows like those in the adjoining room. From the kitchen, a back door opened upon a tiny grass-platted garden of about twenty feet square. A fine locust tree grew in one corner of the plot and gave shade in the afternoon.
Anne explained certain peculiar features regarding the windows of the back-rooms. Dont you see why they are so high? It is because they were once the ventilators to the stalls. Each horse had his own window for air. But I think they now make the rooms look quaint, dont you?
The others agreed with her, and Eleanor said: If we had a shelf running along under the windows, it would look better.
And we can use it for china, added Polly.
Anne now started to go upstairs, followed by the other three; they all examined the bedrooms and were delighted with them. There were two large front and two smaller rear rooms, with a fine tiled bathroom between the back rooms. Not one of the rooms was as small as the largest chambers seen in the modern apartments.
And all for a hundred and fifty a month! exclaimed Eleanor, joyously.
I reckon wed better take it at once, children, said Mrs. Stewart, approvingly.
But remember, said Anne, on the way to the agents office, we have to make all inside repairs, or redecorate as we want. There is no steam heat or hot water supplied, either, like the swell apartment houses, uptown, offer us.
Id rather have it so, Anne dear, replied Mrs. Stewart. Ive always been used to a coal range and those fandangled gas ideas worried me, but I didnt say anything to you-all. I noticed what a fine little kitchen stove this one has, so youll always have hot water never fear. As for heat! Well, a great open fire-place in the front room will help heat upstairs, and there is a register in the bathroom that comes from the kitchen stove-pipe.