"Oh, she's wonderful, quite wonderful. I see she has got those
imported damask curtains she was looking at the other day at
Fielding's. When I am asked how she does it all, I always say it's
beyond me!" Mrs. Nimick murmured.
"It's an art like another," smiled the Governor. "Ella has been used
to living in tents and she has the knack of giving them a wonderful
look of permanence."
"She certainly makes the most extraordinary bargains--all the knack
in the world won't take the place of such curtains and carpets."
"Are they good? I'm glad to hear it. But all the good curtains and
carpets won't make a house comfortable to live in. There's where the
knack comes in, you see."
He recalled with a shudder the lean Congressional years--the years
before his marriage--when Mrs. Nimick had lived with him in
Washington, and the daily struggle in the House had been combined
with domestic conflicts almost equally recurrent. The offer of a
foreign mission, though disconnecting him from active politics, had
the advantage of freeing him from his sister's tutelage, and in
Europe, where he remained for two years, he had met the lady who was
to become his wife.
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