KIPPS
§ 8
It is extraordinary what minor difficulties cluster about house building.
"I say, Ann," remarked Kipps one day, "we shall 'ave to call this little 'ouse by a name. I was thinking of 'Ome Cottage. But I dunno whether 'Ome Cottage is quite the thing like. All these little fishermen's places are called Cottages."
"I like 'Cottage'," said Ann.
"It's got eleven bedrooms, y'see," said Kipps. "I don't see 'ow you can call it a cottage with more bedrooms than four. Prop'ly speaking, it's a Large Villa. Prop'ly, it's almost a Big 'Ouse. Leastways a 'Ouse."
"Well," said Ann, "if you must call it Villa-Home Villa. . . . I wish it wasn't."
Kipps meditated.
"'Ow about Eureka Villa?" he said, raising his voice.
"What's Eureka?"
"It's a name," he said. "There used to be Eureka Dress Fasteners. There's lots of names, come to think of it, to be got out of a shop. There's Pyjama Villa. I remember that in the hosiery. No, come to think, that wouldn't do. But Maraposa—sort of oatmeal cloth, that was. . . . No! Eureka's better."
Ann meditated. "It seems silly like to 'ave a name that don't mean much."
"Perhaps it does," said Kipps. "Though it's what people 'ave to do."
He became meditative. "I got it!" he cried.
398
