A long time after the "first division" had returned, baffled, to the hotel, Anne and Polly burst into the room with happy faces.
"Oh, we just found the most wonderful place! Polly and I actually _discovered_ it. We were giving up all hope of ever finding a decent apartment at any reasonable figure, and had started for the subway when we saw this one. The flower-boxes caught Polly"s eye, so we are really indebted to her for having secured our home."
Anne"s enthusiasm was contagious, and instantly Mrs. Stewart and Eleanor wanted to know where it was located.
Anne and Polly exchanged smiling glances, as if the secret was too precious to impart to others.
"I suppose you two did up the entire upper sections, to-day, eh?" asked Anne, countering their eager queries.
"Did we? I should say we did! I got a taxi for the day and we flew from one pile of stone and marble to the next, and so many rides up and down in gorgeous elevators all day has kept my head still spinning. But we had the same results as yesterday. When you inspect one of these modern honey-combs you see them all. The only difference being that a few owners manage to retain the elevator and telephone operators, while the majority of superintendents apologise by saying, "My help went on a strike, to-day."
"It really looks, Anne, as if these poor New Yorkers will have to move out to the country if they want to live this year," remarked Mrs.
Stewart, earnestly.
Her companions laughed and Anne said: "Mother, you are too precocious.
But now listen to our "find"!
"As I planned, you two went uptown while Polly and I went downtown from here. We covered all the lower sections by criss-crossing back and forth, but we came away from the Gramercy Park section, late this afternoon, with an utter sense of failure. In fact, I was silently planning to inquire about good boarding-houses, when we hailed a Lexington avenue car, going north.
"Being woolly westerners, we failed to ascertain how far northwards the car went, and having paid our fares, sat down. I remember turning to Polly and saying, "This is actually the first car in New York that I have been on that wasn"t crowded to the platforms.""
Polly laughed at the remembrance, and Anne smiled. "But it was our salvation, Anne," ventured the former.
Anne nodded and continued her story. "Then we soon learned why there were vacant seats on that car. A pleasant-faced, grey-haired man of about fifty, must have overheard my comment because he spoke to us after we were seated.
""Perhaps you did not know that this car goes no farther north than the next block? It is switched back downtown, from that point. Did not the conductor mention it to you?"
"I was furious, and I replied: "No! he never said a word when I paid the fares."
"By this time the car stopped and the conductor called out: "All out-dis car goes no furder. We switch back next corner!"
"So Polly and I had to get off with the others. When we stepped down from the car, the nice man lifted his hat to us and said: "I judge you are strangers in the city. Can I direct you anywhere?"
"I thanked him and told him we were only going as far as Forty-second street to the hotel. Then I added, sarcastically: "But there may be no cars which run as far north as that street!"
"He laughed and said: "You had better walk over to Fourth avenue and get the car there. It takes you through the tunnel much quicker than the Lexington avenue car runs to Forty-second street. But be careful and do not board a car that stops at the car-house on Thirty-second street."
"We all laughed at that, as it would have been just like me to do so; then we thanked him and started along Thirty-first street to reach the car. And there we found our Haven of Hope!"
"Where? Not on Thirty-first street, I trust!" exclaimed Mrs. Stewart.
"Isn"t that section of the city dreadful?"
"Not the block where we found a home," explained Anne. "It has several remodeled houses and several other flat houses on it."
"But just wait until you see our house-it"s fine!" said Polly, eagerly.
"Polly caught hold of my arm and exclaimed: "Oh, Anne! see the lovely flower-boxes in that cute little house!"
"I saw three narrow windows on the second floor with green flower-boxes on the outside sills, but then my eyes dropped lower and I spied a swinging sign at a side-door. It merely said: "To Let" inquire, etc.
Polly saw it at the same moment, so we stood and gazed at each other.
""Let"s 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 hain"t been on our books more"n 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 wouldn"t 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 you"se kin get the winder in.""
Anne"s 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 mother"s expression.
"So Polly and I went back to the agent"s, heard the price of the place, and paid down half a month"s 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 didn"t 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 man"s private stable," laughed Anne, enjoying the horror on her mother"s 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 Eleanor"s 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 s.p.a.ce for two carriages, was now part.i.tioned off in a manner that made the most of the s.p.a.ce. A large living-room across the front acted as entrance-hall and pa.s.sageway 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 gla.s.s-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 gra.s.s-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. "Don"t 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, don"t 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.