Page:E Nesbit - Man and Maid (1906).djvu/266

 mahogany, old china, worn silver, and fine napery—all spoke of a luxury as temperate as refined: the luxury of delicate custom, of habit bred in the bone; no mushroom growth of gross self-indulgence, but the unconscious outcome of generations of clear self-respect.

“Can we send anything over for you?” the elder lady asked. “Of course we”

“We didn’t mean by ‘entirely private’ that we would let our tenant starve,” the girl interrupted.

“There is some mistake.” Selborne came to himself suddenly. “I thought I was engaging furnished apartments with er—attendance.”

The girl drew a journal from a heap on the sofa.

“This was the advertisement, wasn’t it?” she asked.

And he read:

“Four-roomed cottage, furnished, in beautiful grounds. Part of these are fenced in for use of tenant of cottage. And in the absence of the family the whole of the grounds are open to tenant. When at home the family wish to be entirely private.”

“I never saw this at all,” said Selborne desperately. “My—I mean I was told it was furnished lodgings. I am very sorry I