I had never seen houses of such a colour, it was stronger,
more glaring and aggressive than the reddest brick, and there
was not a green thing to partially screen or soften it, nor
did the darkness of the wet weather have any mitigating effect
on it. The town was built on high ground, with an open grassy
space before it sloping down to the cliff in which steps had
been cut to give access to the beach, and beyond the cliff we
caught sight of the grey, desolate, wind-vexed sea. But the
rain was coming down more and more heavily, turning the
streets into torrents, so that we began to envy those who had
found a shelter even in so ugly a place. No one would take us
in. House after house, street after street, we tried, and at
every door with "Apartments to Let" over it where we knocked
the same hateful landlady-face appeared with the same
triumphant gleam in the fish-eyes and the same smile on the
mouth that opened to tell us delightedly that she and the town
were "full up"; that never had there been known such a rush of
visitors; applicants were being turned away every hour from
every door!
After three miserable hours spent in this way we began
inquiring at all the shops, and eventually at one were told of
a poor woman in a small house in a street a good way back from
the front who would perhaps be able to taken us in. To this
place we went and knocked at a low door in a long blank wall
in a narrow street; it was opened to us by a pale thin
sad-looking woman in a rusty black gown, who asked us into a
shabby parlour, and agreed to take us in until we could find
something better.
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