But we despaired of winning your consent , and Joyce will not marry me without it . I thought if I could get you to help me fix up my little home that you might get so interested in it -- and so well acquainted with me -- that you would trust me with Joyce . Please do , Miss Sally . I love her so truly and I know I can make her happy . If you do n't , Eden shall never have a mistress . I 'll shut it up , just as it is , and leave it sacred to the dead hope of a bride that will never come to it . '' `` Oh , you would n't , '' protested Miss Sally . `` It would be a shame -- such a dear little house -- and after all the trouble I 've taken . But you have tricked me -- oh , you men could n't be straightforward in anything -- '' `` Was n't it a fair device for a desperate lover , Miss Sally ? '' interrupted Willard . `` Oh , you must n't hold spite because of it , dear ; And you will give me Joyce , wo n't you ? Because if you do n't , I really will shut up Eden forever . '' Miss Sally looked wistfully around her . Through the open door on her left she saw the little living room with its quaint , comfortable furniture , its dainty pictures and adornments . Through the front door she saw the trim , velvet-swarded little lawn . Upstairs were two white rooms that only wanted a woman 's living presence to make them jewels . And the kitchen on which she had expended so much thought and ingenuity -- the kitchen furnished to the last detail , even to the kindling in the range and the match Willard had laid ready to light it ! It gave Miss Sally a pang to think of that altar fire never being lighted . It was really the thought of the kitchen that finished Miss Sally . `` You 've tricked me , '' she said again reproachfully .
`` You 've tricked me into loving this house so much that I can not bear the XXXXX of it never living .
detail door hope house ingenuity lawn men shame spite thought