[00:00.00]Passage 100 My Perfect House

[00:04.92]My house is perfect.

[00:07.65]By great good fortune I have found a housekeeper no less to my mind,

[00:13.88]a low-voiced, light-footed woman of discreet age, strong and deft enough to render me all the service I require,

[00:25.15]and not afraid of loneliness.

[00:27.89]She rises very early.

[00:29.86]By my breakfast-time there remains little to be done under the roof save dressing of meals.

[00:37.84]Very rarely do I hear even a clink of crockery; never the closing of a door or window.

[00:45.61]Oh, blessed silence!

[00:48.02]My house is perfect.

[00:51.19]Just large enough to allow the grace of order in domestic circumstance;

[00:57.43]just that superfluity of inner space, to lack which is to be less than at one's ease.

[01:04.98]The fabric is sound; the work in wood and plaster tells of a more leisurely and a more honest age than ours.

[01:14.95]The stairs do not creak under my step; I am attacked by no unkindly draught;

[01:22.04]I can open or close a window without muscle-ache.

[01:26.32]As to such trifles as the color and device of wall-paper, I confess my indifference;

[01:34.30]be the walls only plain, and I am satisfied.

[01:38.78]The first thing in one's home is comfort;

[01:42.72]let beauty of detail be added if one has the means, the patience, the eye.

[01:50.28]To me, this little book-room is beautiful, and chiefly because it is home.

[01:57.93]Through the greater part of life I was homeless.

[02:02.42]Many places have I lived, some which my soul disliked, and some which pleased me well;

[02:10.40]but never till now with that sense of security which makes a home.

[02:16.53]At any moment I might have been driven forth by evil accident, by disturbing necessity.

[02:24.08]For all that time did I say within myself:

[02:28.57]Some day, perchance, I shall have a home;

[02:33.27]yet the "perchance" had more and more of emphasis as life went on,

[02:39.18]and at the moment when fate was secretly smiling on me, I had all but abandoned hope.

[02:46.51]I have my home at last.

[02:49.47]This house is mine on a lease of a score of years.

[02:54.17]So long I certainly shall not live;

[02:57.45]but, if I did, even so long should I have the money to pay my rent and buy my food.

[03:06.21]I am no cosmopolite.

[03:08.72]Were I to think that I should die away from England, the thought would be dreadful to me.

[03:14.96]And in England, this is the place of my choice; this is my home.