was all brand-new, so the
agent told them, but he talked so incessantly that they were quite
confused, and did not have time to ask many questions. There were all
sorts of things they had made up their minds to inquire about, but when
the time came, they either forgot them or lacked the courage. The other
houses in the row did not seem to be new, and few of them seemed to be
occupied. When they ventured to hint at this, the agent's reply was that
the purchasers would be moving in shortly. To press the matter would
have seemed to be doubting his word, and never in their lives had any
one of them ever spoken to a person of the class called "gentleman"
except with deference and humility.

The house had a basement, about two feet below the street line, and a
single story, about six feet above it, reached by a flight of steps. In
addition there was an attic, made by the peak of the roof, and having
one small window in each end. The street in front of the house was
unpaved and unlighted, and the view from it consisted of a few exactly
similar houses, scattered here and there upon lots grown up with dingy
brown weeds. The house inside contained four rooms, plastered white; the
basement was but a frame, the walls being unplastered and the floor not
laid. The agent explained that the houses were built that way, as the
purchasers generally preferred to finish the basements to suit their own
taste. The attic was also unfinished--the family had been figuring that
in case of an emergency they could rent this attic, but they found that
there was not even a floor, nothing but joists, and beneath them the
lath and plaster of the ceiling below. All of this, however, did not
chill their ardor as much as might have been expected, because of the
volubility of the agent. There was no end to the advantages of the
house, as he set them forth, and he was not silent for an instant; he
showed them everything, down to the locks on the doors and the catches
on the windows, and how to work them. He showed them the sink in the
kitchen, with running water and a faucet, something which Teta Elzbieta
had never in her wildest dreams hoped to possess. After a discovery such
as that it would have seemed ungrateful to find any fault, and so they
tried to shut their eyes to other defects.

Still, they were peasant people, and they hung on to their money by
instinct; it was quite in vain that the agent hinted at promptness--they
would see, they would see, t