Indeed, when all had been done, and he found
himself, four days later, dwelling on the top story of the house of
cobwebs, a simple computation informed him that his total expenditure,
after payment of rent, must not exceed fifteenpence a day. What matter? He
was in the highest spirits, full of energy and hope. His landlord had been
kind and helpful in all sorts of ways, helping him to clean the room, to
remove his property from the old lodgings, to make purchases at the lowest
possible rate, to establish himself as comfortably as circumstances
permitted. And when, on the first morning of his tenancy, he was awakened
by a brilliant sun, the young man had a sensation of comfort and
satisfaction quite new in his experience; for he was really at home; the
bed he slept on, the table he ate at and wrote upon, were his own
possessions; he thought with pity of his lodging-house life, and felt a
joyous assurance that here he would do better work than ever before.
In less than a week Mr. Spicer and he were so friendly that they began to
eat together, taking it in turns to prepare the meal. Now and then they
walked in company, and every evening they sat smoking (very cheap tobacco)
in the wild garden.
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