"I suppose Mr Pepper thinks I live here because he always finds me here," she said. "But that's only because I've no conscience about inflicting myself on other people. _My_ dwelling's a much more modest one than this, Mr Pepper." I think Pepper was insincere enough to reply that that it might quite well be and yet almost everything that could be desired. "I forgot to tell you that, Jeff," Aunt Angela continued, turning to me. "As a matter of fact I only settled the matter to-day--so you're not the only one for whom to-day's been _quite_ important, Mr Pepper." She preened herself. "Oh!" I said shortly. I thought the whole idea rather stupid. But she continued: "I go in in exactly ten days, as soon as the paint's dry. And as I don't begin to pay till Christmas, I actually get a week for nothing. That might not be much to some people," she purred, dropping her eyes, "but it's quite a lot to me. So, Jeff, I shall want you to bring a hammer and a foot-rule--or whatever it is. He's _so_ clever at putting up things, Mr Pepper." She ran amiably on, describing her proposed arrangements. I could hardly blame Pepper that, to save himself from talking, he drew her out. He was bored to death with the drowsy banality of the evening. So Aunt Angela told us how cosy she was going to be in her new quarters. With her bed screened off in one corner, and the day's fire still burning, she would be able (she said) to lie happily awake and watch the firelight on the ceiling and indulge "an old woman's fancies"; there would be no stairs except when she came out of doors; and she wouldn't have to cook in the same room, for there was a little landing with a stove left by the last tenant--and so on. Pepper was the picture of polite interest. "And I shall give a little housewarming, I think," she said, as one who knew that hospitality consisted in the hostship and not in the entertainment provided. "Really I should like to ask you all, Mr Toothill too." Toothill, who had now finished the "unfelting," had struck a match and was experimenting to find out how much of the worsted was cotton and how much wool. He looked up for a moment, but resumed his occupation. Pepper hoped that _he_ would not be left out of Aunt Angela's housewarming. Aunt Angela murmured that that was very sweet of him. And the smallest of small talk went on.