Your wife would want to know about these things." "Haven't got a wife," said Peter Reid gruffly.
"No?
Well, your housekeeper, then.

You couldn't buy a house without getting to know all about the hot water and pantries." "There is no question of my buying it." "Oh, isn't there ?" cried Jean joyfully.

"What a relief! All the time I've been showing you the house I've been picturing us removing sadly to a villa in the Langhope Road.

They are quite nice villas as villas go, but they have only tiny strips of gardens, and stairs that come to meet you as you go in at the front door, and anyway no house could ever be home to us after The Rigs--not though it had hot and cold water in every room and a pantry on every floor." "Dear me," said Peter Reid.
He felt perplexed, and annoyed with himself for being perplexed.

All he had to do was to tell this girl with the frank eyes that The Rigs was his, that he wanted to live in it himself, that if they would turn out at once he would make it worth their while.