"You see, sir," said Mrs Stiff, for her husband, literally as well as metaphorically, had now subsided into the background, "ever since Mr Clayton, as was as nice and pleasant a gent as ever walked in shoe-leather, has been gone, things has been growing worse. We ain't the folks, sir, to take notice of late hours, or smoking, or friends to supper, as won't go in Hansom cabs without a noise, and a bit of racketing now and then--of course not. We know our place, sir, and what gents is--young and old--as lives in eligibly-situated bachelor chambers, overlooking one of the best streets in the metropolis; but I put it to you, sir, as a gent of sense, is _that_ right--and that--and THAT?" Mrs Stiff's forefinger was pointed at first one and then another quadru- or bi-ped intruder. "Ever since Mr Clayton's been gone, sir, here you've had these things a coming in. And now, is it right, sir? Is tortushes--six of 'em--proper things to be a-scrawming over a Brussels carpet as cost us six-and-six a yard, without the planning and making? And let me tell you, sir, as six-and-sixes to buy yards of carpet ain't scraped out of the gutters; let alone the other expenses of furnishing a house, with upholsterers and furniture shops thrusting veneer down your throat when you go in for solid; and if, to save your money, you go to one of the auction-rooms, you're a'most ragged to pieces by the Jew brokers; and if you won't employ 'em, them a-running up things and bidding against you shameful. Furnishing a house don't mean marrying a lady and putting her in it, I can tell you, Mr Redgrave, sir; and when it's your own Brussels as you're a walking on, and your own sofas as you sit on, you won't destroy 'em with all sorts of nasty filthy animals, as is that full of insecks as makes it miserable to come in the room." "Now, look here!" exclaimed Lionel, whose countenance wore a comical aspect of trouble and despair,--"look here!" he exclaimed, starting up; "I don't want to go--I don't want the trouble. There, I'll promise you, I won't buy any more, will that suit you?" But the long-suffering Mrs Stiff was now fully roused, and determined to hold the ground which she had gained. She said, and very justly, that she could not afford to go on upon such terms, as the result must be notice to quit from their own landlord. She was determined now to have a thorough clearance, or Mr Redgrave must get apartments where people did not mind having their rooms made into a "wild beast show." This being the climax of Mrs Stiff's speech, that lady flounced out of the room, the centre of an aerial vortex raised by her voluminous garments, leaving Lionel Redgrave and his landlord staring very hard at one another. "I say, you know, what's to be done?" said the young man, at last.