"I have a sort of housekeeper."
"In a cottage?"
"In a cottage."
"But what do you do--all alone?"
"I cultivate myself."
And Hilda, in a changed tone, said:
"How wise you are!"
"Rather inconvenient, being out there, isn't it?" Edwin suggested.
"It may be inconvenient sometimes for my job. But I can't help that. I give the State what I consider fair value for the money it pays me, and not a grain more. I've got myself to think about. There are some things I won't do, and one of them is to live all the time in a vile hole like the Five Towns. I won't do it. I'd sooner be a blooming peasant on the land."
As he was a native he had the right to criticise the district without protest from other natives.