The difficulty was that the landlord was hard to move in this
respect. It ended in my finding the money to do everything that was
wanted, and taking a lease of the house for five years at the same
rental as that paid by the last occupant. I then sublet it to
Ernest, of course taking care that it was put more efficiently into
repair than his landlord was at all likely to have put it.
A week later I called and found everything so completely transformed
that I should hardly have recognised the house. All the ceilings had
been whitewashed, all the rooms papered, the broken glass hacked out
and reinstated, the defective wood-work renewed, all the sashes,
cupboards and doors had been painted. The drains had been thoroughly
overhauled, everything in fact that could be done had been done, and
the rooms now looked as cheerful as they had been forbidding when I
had last seen them. The people who had done the repairs were
supposed to have cleaned the house down before leaving, but Ellen
had given it another scrub from top to bottom herself after they
were gone, and it was as clean as a new pin. I almost felt as though I
could have lived in it myself, and as for Ernest, he was in the
seventh heaven.
Pages:
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547