s were weak and one felt
the treads give as one went up them.

Over and above these drawbacks the house had an ill name, by reason of
the fact that the wife of the last occupant had hanged herself in it not
very many weeks previously. She had set down a bloater before the fire
for her husband's tea, and had made him a round of toast. She then left
the room as though about to return to it shortly, but instead of doing so
she went into the back kitchen and hanged herself without a word. It was
this which had kept the house empty so long in spite of its excellent
position as a corner shop. The last tenant had left immediately after
the inquest, and if the owner had had it done up then people would have
got over the tragedy that had been enacted in it, but the combination of
bad condition and bad fame had hindered many from taking it, who like
Ellen, could see that it had great business capabilities. Almost
anything would have sold there, but it happened also that there was no
second-hand clothes shop in close proximity so that everything combined
in its favour, except its filthy state and its reputation.

When I saw it, I thought I would rather die than live in such an awful
place--but then I had been living in the Temple for the last five and
twenty years. Ernest was lodging in Laystall Street and had just come
out of prison; before this he had lived in Ashpit Place so that this
house had no terrors for him provided he could get it done up. The
difficulty was that the landlord was hard to move in this respect. It
ended in my finding the money to do everything that was wanted, and
taking a lease of the house for five years at the same rental as that
paid by the last occupant. I then sublet it to Ernest, of course taking
care that it was put more efficiently into repair than his landlord was
at all likely to have put it.

A week later I called and found everything so completely transformed that
I should hardly have recognised the house. All the ceilings had been
whitewashed, all the rooms papered, the broken glass hacked out and
reinstated, the defective wood-work renewed, all the sashes, cupboards
and doors had been painted. The drains had been thoroughly overhauled,
everything in fact, that could be done had been done, and the rooms now
looked as cheerful as they had been forbidding when I had last seen them.
The people who had done the repairs were supposed to have cleaned the
house down before leaving, but