She was a needy and thrifty spinster, who
never hesitated to declare that the lovely view was all very well, but
that for her own part she lived in the villa for cheapness, and that
if she had a clear three hundred pounds a year she would go and really
enjoy life near her sister, a baronet's lady, at Glasgow. She was now
proposing to make a visit to that exhilarating city, and she desired to
turn an honest penny by sub-letting for a few weeks her historic Italian
chambers. The terms on which she occupied them enabled her to ask a rent
almost jocosely small, and she begged Rowland to do what she called a
little genteel advertising for her. Would he say a good word for her
rooms to his numerous friends, as they left Rome? He said a good word
for them now to Mrs. Hudson, and told her in dollars and cents how cheap
a summer's lodging she might secure. He dwelt upon the fact that she
would strike a truce with tables-d'hote and have a cook of her own,
amenable possibly to instruction in the Northampton mysteries. He
had touched a tender chord; Mrs. Hudson became almost cheerful. Her
sentiments upon the table-d'hote system and upon foreign household
habits generally were remarkable, and, if we had space for it, would
repay analysis; and the idea of reclaiming a lost soul to the Puritanic
canons of cookery quite lightened the burden of her depression.
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