The House of All Sorts by Emily Carr

table half finished.
    â€œYou like them? I make them all myself. I was a milliner in New York—head of all the girls. They gave me a big pay because I had knack in designing—big fine store it was too!”
    â€œHere you are crying because a snob who couldn’t make one ‘frump’s bow’ did not speak to you! Come, let’s go into the garden and play with the pups.”
    She was soon tumbling with them on the lawn, kind wholehearted clumsy pups, much more her type than the next-door bride.

ALWAYS SOMETHING
    SHE WAS SO YOUNG , so pretty, so charming! But when it came to a matter of shrewd bargaining, you couldn’t beat her. Her squeezing of the other fellow’s price was clever—she could have wrung juice from a raw quince. Her big husband was entirely dominated by his tall, slender wife; he admired her methods enormously. Sometimes he found it embarrassing to look into the face of the “squeezed.” While she was crumbling down my rent, he turned his back, looking out of the window, but I saw that his big ears were red and that they twitched.
    It was the Doll’s Flat she bargained for, which seemed ridiculous seeing that he was so large, she so tall, and the Doll’s Flat so little.
    â€œWon’t it be rather squeezy?” I suggested.
    â€œMy husband is used to ship cabins. For myself I like economy.”
    She was an extremely neat, orderly person, kept the Doll’s Flat like a Doll’s Flat—no bottles, no laundry, no garbage troubles, as one had with so many tenants. She made the place attractive.
    She entertained a bit and told me all the nice things people said about her flat.
    â€œIf only I had ‘such and such a rug’ or ‘such and such a curtain’ it would be perfect!” and she wheedled till I got it for her. But these added charms to make her flat
perfect
always came out of my pocket, never out of hers.
    I had a white cat with three snowball kittens who had eyes like forget-me-nots. When the tall, slim wife was entertaining, she borrowed my “cat family,” tied blue ribbons round their necks. Cuddled on a cushion in a basket they amused and delighted her guests—inexpensive entertainment. Flowers were always to be had out of my garden for the picking.
    â€œIf only toasted buns grew on the trees!” She liked toasted buns for her tea parties—the day-before’s were half-price and toasted better…I heard her on my ’phone.
    â€œNot deliver five cents’ worth! Why should I buy more when I don’t require them?” Down slammed the receiver and she turned to me.
    â€œThey do not deserve one’s custom! I shall have to walk to town: it is not worth paying a twelve-cent carfare to fetch five cents’ worth of stale buns!”
    I SWORE AT THE beginning of each month I would buy nothing new for her, but before the month was out I always had, and wanted to kick myself for a weak fool. I liked her in spite of her meanness.
    She was proud of her husband’s looks; he wore his navy lieutenant’s clothes smartly.
    â€œRalph, you need a new uniform.”—He ordered it. “How much is the tailor charging? …Ridiculous!”
    â€œHe is the best tailor in town, my dear.”
    â€œLeave him to me.”
    The next day she came home from town. “I’ve cut that tailor’s price in half!”
    â€œWhat a clever wife!” But the lieutenant went red. He took advantage of her bargaining but he shivered at her boasting in front of me about it.
    SHE DID HATE to pay a doctor. She had been a nurse before she married; she knew most of the doctors in town. It was wonderful how she could nurse along an ailment till someone in the house fell sick, then she just “happened to be coming in the gate” as the doctor went out. He would stop for a word with the pretty thing.
    â€œHow are you?”
    Out came tongue and all her saved-up ailments. She ran