"Hot water outside?"
"Just as easy to have hot water outside as inside, is n't it?" said Denry.
"Well, I never!" exclaimed Mrs. Machin. She was impressed.
"That's how everything's dodged up in this house," said Denry. He shut off the water.
And he rang once again. No answer! No illumination within the abode!
"I tell you what I shall do," said Denry at length. "I shall let myself in. I 've got a key of the back door."
"Are you sure it's all right?"
"I don't care if it is n't all right," said Denry defiantly. "He asked me to be up here, and he ought to be here to meet me. I 'm not going to stand any nonsense from anybody."
In they went, having skirted round the walls of the house.
Denry closed the door, pushed a switch, and the electric light shone. Electric light was then quite a novelty in Bursley. Mrs. Machin had never seen it in action. She had to admit that it was less complicated than oil-lamps. In the kitchen the electric light blazed upon walls tiled in grey and a floor tiled in black and white. There was a gas range and a marble slopstone with two taps. The woodwork was dark. Earthenware saucepans stood on a shelf. The cupboards were full of gear chiefly in earthenware. Denry began to exhibit to his mother a tank provided with ledges and shelves and grooves, in which he said that everything except knives could be washed and dried automatically.