He could not understand it, and he would not accept it without understanding. Bella Vista was a gentleman’s residence with grained doors, entrance hall and glasshouse, inside sanitation and every convenience. This grey stone cottage had absolutely nothing to recommend it; even accepting the fact that gentry and foreigners were often “queer”--it was mostly only the queer ones who came to live any longer space of time than just the summer holidays at St. Miniot or Polpinnock--even they, surely, must recognize the overwhelming superiority of Bella Vista? Wenn argued and argued, with bulging eyes, and his tie an angrier lilac against his deep-coloured face. He disparaged his cottage with a zest that would have astonished the former tenants. He pointed out the fact that it was lonely, and liable to sudden night attacks: that the soil was too poor even to grow potatoes; that all water had to be pumped up from the well outside; that the beamed ceilings were low, the windows draughty, and the roof unreliable; no carts or cars could drive up to it, moreover, as the only access was by a looping footpath across the moor. Wenn himself was a poor man, but he could never bring himself to live in such a rough sort of a hole nor yet to bring his missus to live in it. Mr. Barrison--with stolid contempt he eliminated Ursula from negotiation--Mr. Barrison had better reconsider his joke, for o’ course it was only a joke, and take Bella Vista on a three years’ lease. “And I’ll tell ee what I’ll do, sir; I’ll rent it to you for fifty-five pounds a year, and that’s ten pounds good money less than I meant to ask for” ... he had meant to ask forty-eight pounds, but the discussion had made him thirsty, and thirst is as little pleasure to a temperance landlord who has once been an honest drinker, as sunset to a blind man who has once had his sight. Finally, as the Barrisons could not be persuaded to return to Bella Vista and be charmed by a more detailed inspection of the graining; and as Wenn simply could not believe it possible that any one actually in his senses could _prefer_ the cottage--“It isn’t a question of rent at all,” Doug remarked rashly--they agreed to let the matter stand over for reflection and further counsels. And Wenn charged them heavily both for the hire of his jingle, and for driving it in person. [V]