“In New Hampshire, I admit, it has been held that where a landlord negligently constructs his building, or negligently allows it to continue out of repair, he is liable for injuries to his tenants;[432] and in New York the rule is said to be that when buildings are in good repair when leased and afterward become ruinous and dangerous, the owner is not responsible unless he has expressly agreed to repair.”[433]
“Surely, then, one has not to pay rent when a house is in such a wretched state? I suppose we are not bound to stay here.”
“Yes, to both your queries. The only cases in which a tenant has been permitted to withdraw from his tenancy and refuse payment of rent are where there has been some error or fraudulent misdescription of the premises, or where they have been found to be uninhabitable in consequence of the wrongful act or default of the landlord himself;[434] and it is not perfectly clear that he can do so even then.[435] But I must go out for the present, my dear. Fare thee well.”
In the hall down stairs I met Mr. Screwhard, our landlord, a gentleman who, from his personal appearance, would have accumulated a large fortune as an undertaker; for from his countenance you could no more have coaxed a smile than you could have out of a poker. As I was bidding him a hurried “Good morning,” he placed his body, so long, so lean, and so straight that you might have taken it for a telegraph pole in consumption, before me, and said, in tones which would have well become the ghost in Hamlet—
“You must be in by nine o’clock, sir; we lock the front door then.”
“Gammon!” said I; “you will have to unlock it, then, to let me in; for when you rented me the rooms you impliedly granted all that was necessary for their free use and full enjoyment, such as the use of the hall and stairs whenever required, and not only when you choose.”[436]
“I will yield to your wishes for this night only,” said Screwhard, in a voice as solemn as if he were about to be cremated; “but mind, rap with your knuckles on the door; in time your wife will hear and can let you in, for I must be allowed to have unbroken slumbers; my health demands that most imperatively.”
“Stuff and nonsense!” I replied; “I have a right to use the bell and the knocker, as nothing was said to the contrary before;[437] and I shall use them.”
And impatient with the old fellow I passed on, saying to myself: “The man must be a fool. An action will lie against him if he attempts to interfere with our use of the necessary adjuncts of his furnished apartments. To be sure if we were bad tenants, he might, in mitigation of damages, show that he acted so to make us leave.[438] But we have not been long enough for that.”
Apollo stayed not his fiery steeds in their downward career towards the happy isles of the west that day, and Phœbus’ sickly-looking sister held sway in high heaven when I again reached the door of my new domicile. With me was Tom Jones, who was anxious to see the rooms. Mrs. Lawyer received us in the parlor with a face full of disgust, and after the interchange of a word or two with Tom, calling me aside, made the horrid announcement that our bedrooms were fully occupied by animals of a small size, broad for their length, darkish in color, scented, anthropophagous, and designated by the same letters as very dark drawing pencils.