Nor did any stranger doubt it on looking at the frontage.

But then it was in all respects a town house to the eye,--that is, an English town house, being as ugly and as respectable as unlimited bricks and mortar could make it.

Immediately opposite to Mrs.Winterfield lived the leading doctor and a retired builder, so that the lady's eye was not hurt by any sign of a shop.

The shops, indeed, came within a very few yards of her on either side; but as the neighbouring shops on each side were her own property, this was not unbearable.

To me, had I lived there, the incipient growth of grass through some of the stones which formed the margin of the road would have been altogether unendurable.