"How strange to have no lace curtains over the windows, only the heavy ones at the side. Why, people outside must be able to look right in! Do you suppose they have taken them out to be washed? Or don't they know about curtains in America?"
They murmured their remarks in a low tone, keeping a weather-ear cocked to the hall.
"That wall-paper is disgraceful. It was on when the Charpentiers lived here."
"M. Lapagorry had expected, you know, of course, to do this apartment over after the Charpentiers moved out. But these new people never made a single comment, or complaint. Just accepted it."
"I daresay they are used to log-cabins at home, with Indians at the door."
"Oh, no, Madame Garnier, my Henri says that the Indians are quite civilized in America now."
Madame Garnier frowned slightly at the mention of Henri.
The other woman went on, "Apparently they thought it was all right to have faded paper and those awful old curtains. M. Lapagorry was so astonished he almost fell over backward. And when he saw they didn't find fault with anything, he asked a higher rent, ever so much higher than the Charpentiers had paid, and they took that too without a word. People say M. Lapagorry can't sleep nights now because he didn't ask more."
Madame Garnier observed, as one mentioning an obvious fact, "Oh, well, Madame Fortier, he will, of course, next time."
Madame Fortier saw nothing to smile at in this. "Yes, of course," she said seriously.
Madame Garnier now said, "They must be very rich. Where is it they are from, Buenos Aires?"
"Oh, no, Madame Garnier. I think it is somewhere in North America. My Henri says that …"
Madame Garnier broke in, irritated, to say with suppressed heat, "Oh, North America or South America, what's the difference? They are all foreigners, and who knows what
