Fantasy literature; London (England) -- Fiction; Witches -- Fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
It is meant to provide for the needs of those who dislike hotels,
clubs, settlements, hostels, boarding-houses, and lodgings only
less than their own homes; who detest landladies, waiters,
husbands and wives, charwomen, and all forms of lookers after. This
house is a monastery and a convent for monks and nuns dedicated to
unknown gods. Men and women who are tired of being laboriously kind
to their bodies, who like to be a little uncomfortable and quite
uncared for, who love to live from week to week without speaking,
except to confide their destinations to 'bus-conductors, who are
weary of woolly decorations, aspidistras, and the eternal two
generations of roses which riot among blue ribbons on hireling
wall-papers, who are ignorant of the science of tipping and
thanking, who do not know how to cook yet hate to be cooked for,
will here find the thing they have desired, and something else as
well.
There are six cells in this house, and no common sitting-room.
Guests wishing to address each other must do so on the stairs, or
in the shop. Each cell has whitewashed walls, and contains a small
deal table, one wooden chair, a hard bed, a tin bath, and a little
inconvenient fireplace. No guest may bring into the house more than
can be carried out again in one large suit-case. Carpets, rugs,
mirrors, and any single garment costing more than three guineas,
are prohibited. Any guest proved to have made use of a taxi, or to
have travelled anywhere first class, or to have bought cigarettes
or sweets costing more than three shillings a hundred or
eighteenpence a pound respectively, or to have paid more than three
and sixpence (war-tax included) for a seat in any place of
entertainment, will be instantly expelled. Dogs, cats, goldfish,
and other superhuman companions are encouraged.
Working guests are preferred, but if not at work, guests must spend
at least eighteen hours out of the twenty-four entirely alone. No
guest may entertain or be entertained except under special license
obtainable from the Superintendent.
There is a pump in the back yard. There is no telephone, no
electric light, no hot water system, no attendance, and no modern
comfort whatever. Tradesmen are forbidden to call. There is no
charge for residence in this house.
"It certainly sounds an unusual place," admitted Sarah Brown. "Is the
house always full?"
"Never," said the witch. "A lot of people can swallow everything but the
last clause. We have at present one guest, called Peony."
She replaced the prospectus in the drawer, which she then tried to shut.
While she was engaged in this thundering endeavour, Sarah Brown noticed
that the drawer was full of the little paper packets which she had seen
the day before in the witch's possession.
"What do you do with your magic?" she asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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