“Now what's the meaning of all this? Come down off that ladder at once!”
I clambered down. But I was not anxious now. I had thought out something to say that I fancied would prove effective at the right moment—unless my judgment was altogether at fault.
I tried first of all to make out it didn't matter really what colour we used for the second time either, but the Captain cut me short here and said:
“Nonsense! Yellow on top of that grey will look like mud; you can see that for yourself, surely.”
“Well, then, we might give it two coats of yellow,” I suggested.
“Four coats of paint? No, thank you! And all that white you've been wasting! It's ever so much dearer than the yellow.”
This was perfectly true, and the very argument I had been fearing all along. I answered now straight-forwardly:
“Let me paint it grey.”
“What?”
“It would look better. There's something about the house ... and with the green of the woods behind ... the style of the place is....”