My house is perfect. By great good fortune I have found a housekeeper no less to my mind,
a low-voiced, light-footed woman of discreet age, strong and deft enough to render
me all the service I require, and not afraid of loneliness. She rises very early.
By my breakfast-time there remains little to be done under the roof save dressing of meals.
Very rarely do I hear even a clink of crockery; never the closing of a door or window. Oh,
blessed silence! My house is perfect. Just large enough to allow the grace of order in
domestic circumstance; just that superfluity of inner space, to lack which is to be less
than at one's ease. The fabric is sound; the work in wood and plaster tells of a more
leisurely and a more honest age than ours. The stairs do not creak under my step;
I am attacked by no unkindly draught; I can open or close a window without muscle-ache.
As to such trifles as the color and device of wall-paper, I confess my indifference;
be the walls only plain, and I am satisfied. The first thing in one's home is comfort;
let beauty of detail be added if one has the means, the patience, the eye. To me, this
little book-room is beautiful, and chiefly because it is home. Through the greater
part of life I was homeless. Many places have I lived, some which my soul disliked,
and some which pleased me well; but never till now with that sense of security which makes
a home. At any moment I might have been driven forth by evil accident, by disturbing necessity.
For all that time did I say within myself: Some day, perchance, I shall have a home;
yet the "perchance" had more and more of emphasis as life went on, and at the moment when
fate was secretly smiling on me, I had all but abandoned hope. I have my home at last.
This house is mine on a lease of a score of years. So long I certainly shall not live;
but, if I did, even so long should I have the money to pay my rent and buy my food.
I am no cosmopolite. Were I to think that I should die away from England, the thought
would be dreadful to me. And in England, this is the place of my choice; this is my home.