" So much as this she made a point of saying to me.
"We are very poor, we live very badly. The rooms are very bare--
that you might take; they have nothing in them. I don't know how you
would sleep, how you would eat."
"With your permission, I could easily put in a bed and a few
tables and chairs. C'est la moindre des choses and
the affair of an hour or two. I know a little man from whom
I can hire what I should want for a few months, for a trifle,
and my gondolier can bring the things round in his boat.
Of course in this great house you must have a second kitchen,
and my servant, who is a wonderfully handy fellow" (this personage
was an evocation of the moment), "can easily cook me a chop there.
My tastes and habits are of the simplest; I live on flowers!"
And then I ventured to add that if they were very poor
it was all the more reason they should let their rooms.
They were bad economists--I had never heard of such a
waste of material.
I saw in a moment that the good lady had never before been spoken
to in that way, with a kind of humorous firmness which did
not exclude sympathy but was on the contrary founded on it.
She might easily have told me that my sympathy was impertinent,
but this by good fortune did not occur to her.
I left her with the understanding that she would consider
the matter with her aunt and that I might come back the next day
for their decision.
"The aunt will refuse; she will think the whole proceeding very louche!"
Mrs.
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