"And you gave me this house
for myself. And I was so happy!"
"You are terrible. If my business was to lodge soldiers of your sex
every day I should be grey-haired. You cannot lodge with an owl, you
cannot lodge with your compatriots!..."
"Yet you were joking when you said you would put us all here?"
"I was joking. Take the house--the rats and the rubbish included with
it! No one will disturb you till the owner comes. I have another, a
better, a cleaner house in my mind for your companions. Now, good-bye, I
must go back to my work. Will you ask me to tea one day?"
"I promise. The moment I have one sitting-room ready."
He left her, and she explored the upper storey with the _concierge._
"I should have this for your bedroom and this adjoining for your
sitting-room. The windows look in the street and you can see life."
Fanny agreed. It pleased her better to look in the street than into the
garden. The two rooms were large and square. Old blue curtains of
brocade still hung from the windows; in the inner room was a vast oak
bed and a turkey carpet of soft red and blue. The fireplaces were of
open brick and suitable for logs. Both rooms were bare of any other
furniture.
"I will find you the mattress to match that bed. I hid it; it is in the
house opposite."
She went away to dust it and find a man to help her carry it across the
road.
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