"Oh, do," said Lola."We'll have such a good time."
Carrie thought a while.
"I believe I will," she said, and then added: "I'll have to see first, though."
With the idea thus grounded, rent day approaching, and clothes calling for instant purchase, she soon found excuse in Hurstwood's lassitude.He said less and drooped more than ever.
As rent day approached, an idea grew in him.It was fostered by the demands of creditors and the impossibility of holding up many more.Twenty-eight dollars was too much for rent."It's hard on her," he thought."We could get a cheaper place."
Stirred with this idea, he spoke at the breakfast table.
"Don't you think we pay too much rent here?" he asked.
"Indeed I do," said Carrie, not catching his drift.
"I should think we could get a smaller place," he suggested."We don't need four rooms."
Her countenance, had he been scrutinising her, would have exhibited the disturbance she felt at this evidence of his determination to stay by her.He saw nothing remarkable in asking her to come down lower.
"Oh, I don't know," she answered, growing wary.
"There must be places around here where we could get a couple of rooms, which would do just as well."
Her heart revolted."Never!" she thought.Who would furnish the money to move? To think of being in two rooms with him! She resolved to spend her money for clothes quickly, before something terrible happened.That very day she did it.Having done so, there was but one other thing to do.
"Lola," she said, visiting her friend, "I think I'll come."
"Oh, jolly!" cried the latter.
"Can we get it right away?" she asked, meaning the room.
"Certainly," cried Lola.
They went to look at it.Carrie had saved ten dollars from her expenditures--enough for this and her board beside.Her enlarged salary would not begin for ten days yet--would not reach her for seventeen.She paid half of the six dollars with her friend.
"Now, I've just enough to get on to the end of the week," she confided.