Anything Goes

debts all paid, there were exactly eight hundred dollars left.
    Lily and Robert had hung onto the money like grim death for almost two years now, moving three times into successively more dreadful apartments. With Lily’s pitiful but regular wages and Robert’s erratic income on the credit side and the expenses for their horrible tiny apartment and food on the debit side, they now had eight hundred ninety dollars and forty-two cents. Lily consulted a calendar. She’d been keeping track for two months short of two years. She subtracted the original eight hundred dollars, and divided the remainder by twenty-two months.
    They were ‘getting ahead’ at the rate of four dollars and eleven cents a month. Robert desperately needed a new tux and his shoes had been resoled as many times as possible. Lily’s everyday clothes, too, were threadbare and ink-stained. She had trunks of party dresses, of course, but she’d look like a fool wearing them to work at the bank unless she could get on the night shift, which was entirely women who, she’d heard, took off their dresses and worked all night in their slips to save wear and tear on their shabby outer clothing.
    She put her head down on the table and cried. She wasn’t sure if it was out of happiness for herself or despair for Robert. Dear Robert, who was ‘afraid of trees.’
     

Chapter 3
     
    Even Robert agreed there was no choice when he came home a bit tipsy around three in the morning and was forced to look at Lily’s computations.
    “So, at the rate we’re going,“ he said, “we might have another five hundred dollars in ten years if we keep on the same way. And nearly a million each if we stick out the ten in ghastly great house in the jungle.“
    “Not a jungle, Robert. Woods. It won’t be so gothic when we get it cleaned up and it won’t cost us a cent. I promise you we’ll make sure it’s a place you’ll like.“
    “I don’t think that’s possible, but anything’s better than this,“ he said, making a sweeping gesture that caused him to almost graze his fingers on the door. “But how on earth are we to even feed ourselves? I’m sure if Mrs. Prune does the cooking, the food and service will cost as much as they’re paying us. We really can’t live on absolutely nothing at all. You know how hard it was to get a job in the city. How will we get one in the wilderness? I, for one, have no wilderness skills, as you may have noticed. And I don’t think the tips at Mabel’s Cafe would be much to write home about.”
    Lily fussed about, tidying the rickety, ugly table where she’d been going over her paperwork and said offhandedly, “I’ve thought about that, too. And I have an idea. Even if we come out even with the Prun... Prinneys, we could take in another boarder. Just one, mind. Somebody we can like. Someone young. And even though that will make the food cost a little more, we ought to at least clear five or six dollars a month, which is better than what we’re doing now. And it won’t be as hard on us. Surely Mr. Prinney’s idea of a household budget will run to at least one maid to do the cleaning.”
    Robert sat down on the lumpy sofa. Grinning, he said, “And what else have you been thinking about?“
    “Me? Don’t be silly, Robert. Nothing, really.”
    “Lil, old dear, you know you can’t fib to me. I taught you fibbing.”
    She sat down next to him. “Well, I thought if one boarder extra worked out well, we might eventually take in more. Not soon, Robert. And only if you agree.“
    “I might, at that. But only if they’re amusing and interesting.”
    Lily’s idea of the Good Life didn’t include a houseful of ‘amusing and interesting’ paying strangers, but if that was the price of keeping Robert happy, so be it. She’d get out of this dismal apartment, away from the dreadful bank and off the scalding pavements and Robert would have his very own circle of entertaining friends. A fair enough trade.
    Robert was deep in thought. “It’s a bit of a vacation spot, isn’t it? Hunting, fishing, yachting and all that? We could make it a classy spot to spend the summer or fall. Not for boarders, for vacationers. Dressing for dinner and such. You could wear your good frocks again, Lily. We might even get me a new tux if we got a bit ahead. When we get the house fixed up, I could invite Bunny and Dodo and Tank up here and show them the place. They’d tell everybody else what a great joint it is.”
    Lily smiled and bade