CHAPTER III
The Labour-Saving House as it Might be
I
The other day I was re-reading that delightful story of a simple soul, Kipps, and was struck anew by the truth of the difficulties which beset Artie and Ann when they went house-hunting.
"'They build these 'ouses,' said Ann, 'as though girls wasn't 'uman beings.... There's kitchen stairs to go up, Artie.... Some poor girl's got to go up and down, up and down, and be tired out, jest because they haven't the sense to leave enough space to give their steps a proper rise; and no water upstairs anywhere—every drop got to be carried! It's 'ouses like this wear girls out.
"'It's 'aving 'ouses built by men, I believe, makes all the work and trouble....'
"The Kipps, you see, thought they were looking for a reasonably simple little contemporary house, but indeed they were looking either for dreamland or 1975 A.D., or thereabouts, and it hadn't come."