He thought a collection of trout, male and
female, might be bought and placed in it; preference being given to
some hardy breed of trout, accustomed to roughing it. I told him I
wasn't looking for a place where I could play at being Noah; and left
him, as I explained to him, with the intention of going straight to
my solicitors and instituting proceedings against him for talking
like a fool; and he put on his hat and went across to his solicitors
to commence proceedings against me for libel.
"I suppose that, with myself, he thought better of it in the end.
But I'm tired of having my life turned into one perpetual first of
April. This house that I have bought is not my heart's desire, but
about it there are possibilities. We will put in lattice windows,
and fuss-up the chimneys. Maybe we will let in a tablet over the
front-door, with a date--always looks well: it is a picturesque
figure, the old-fashioned five. By the time we have done with it--
for all practical purposes--it will be a Tudor manor-house. I have
always wanted an old Tudor manor-house. There is no reason, so far
as I can see, why there should not be stories connected with this
house. Why should not we have a room in which Somebody once slept?
We won't have Queen Elizabeth. I'm tired of Queen Elizabeth.
Besides, I don't believe she'd have been nice. Why not Queen Anne?
A quiet, gentle old lady, from all accounts, who would not have given
trouble.
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