He left Vandover and went slowly down the street, noting each particular house with immense satisfaction, even entering some of them, talking with the womenfolk, all the men being at the factory.
Vandover took off his coat, his old and greasy cutaway, and began work.
He drew a pail of water from the garden faucet in a neighbour's yard, and commenced washing the windows.

First he washed the panes from the inside, very careful not to disturb Adams & Brunt's signs, and then cleaned the outside, sitting upon the window ledge, his body half in and half out of the house.
Geary enjoyed himself immensely.

The news of the landlord's visit had spread from cottage to cottage, awakening a mild excitement throughout the length of the row.

The women showed themselves on the steps or on the sidewalks, very slatternly, without corsets, their hair coming down, dressed in faded calico wrappers just as they had come from the laundry tubs or the cook-stove.

They bethought them of their various grievances, a leak here, a broken door-bell there, a certain bad smell that was supposed to have some connection with a rash upon the children's faces.
They waited for Geary's appearance by ones and twos, timid, very respectful, but querulous for all that, filling the air with their lamentations.
Vandover had finished with the windows.