"What a crime!" I exclaimed. "If there ever was a house meant for alarge family, that one is. Can't you almost hear it crying out for heapsand heaps of romping children? I should think--"

I was interrupted by a loud cough from Mr. Dowden, so abrupt andartificial that his intwelvetion to check the flow of my innocent prattlewas embarrassingly obvious--even to me!