Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/222

 There were only three rooms in the cottage, sitting-room, bedroom and kitchen, but wonders had been worked within the last hour, graceful feminine touches which even wrung unstinted praise from Mrs. Selton, who had hitherto regarded her habitation as beyond improvement. Perseus expressed the keenest delight with what he saw, and Andromeda chattered like a child with a new toy. She took him by the hand and led him from room to room.

“Tsn’t it a duck of a kitchen?” she cried. He thought it looked rather poverty-stricken, but did not say so. “TI shall be able quite easily to boil the chocolate and the eggs for supper when the old lady has gone.” (It was agreed that Mrs. Selton, who had a married son in the adjacent village, should sleep at his house.) “Fiverything is so convenient, you see.” He did not see it, but no matter. “And isn’t it a quaint chimney?”

Too quaint, he thought, for comfort, suggesting a plentiful supply of smoke in a southwest wind.

“A bit chilly, this floor?” he suggested tim-