ited upon by a charwoman, whom he paid
extravagantly for a maximum of dirt and discomfort; then the
unsatisfactory person fell ill, and, whilst cursing his difficulties,
Harvey was surprised by a visit from Mrs. Handover, who made an
unexpected suggestion--would Mr. Rolfe accept her services in lieu of
the charwoman's, paying her whatever he had been accustomed to give?
The proposal startled him. Mrs. Handover seemed to belong pretty much
to his own rank of life; he was appalled at the thought of bidding her
scrub floors and wash plates; and indeed it had begun to dawn upon him
that, for a man with more than nine hundred a year, he was living in a
needlessly uncomfortable way. On his reply that he thought of removing,
Mrs. Handover fell into profound depression, and began to disclose her
history. Very early in life she had married a man much beneath her in
station, with the natural result. After some years of quarrelling,
which culminated in personal violence on her husband's part, she
obtained a judicial separation. For a long time the man had ceased to
send her money, and indeed he was become a vagabond pauper, from whom
nothing could be obtained; she depended upon her son, and on the
kindness of Buncombe, who asked no rent. If she could earn a little
money by work, she would be much happier, and with tremulous hope she
had taken this step of appealing to her neighbour in the house.

Harvey could not resist these representations. When the new arrangement
had been in operation for a week or so, Harvey began to reflect upon
Mrs. Handover's personal narrative, and in some respects to modify his
first impulsive judgment thereon. It seemed to him not impossible that
Mr. Handover's present condition of vagabond pauper might be traceable
to his marriage with a woman who had never learnt the elements of
domestic duty. Thoroughly well-meaning, Mrs. Handover was the most
incompetent of housewives. Yet such was Harvey Rolfe's delicacy, and so
intense his moral cowardice, that year after year he bore with Mrs.
Handover's defects, and paid her with a smile the wages of two
first-rate servants. Dust lay thick about him; he had grown accustomed
to it, as to many another form of sluttishness. After all, he possessed
a quiet retreat for studious hours, and a tolerable sleeping-place,
with the advantage of having his correspondence forwarded to him when
he chose to wander. To be sure, it was not final; one would not wish to
grow old an