He hadn't bought it because it was a bargain. He had very little
idea whether it was a bargain or not. And if there was a grain of truth
in John Williamson's explanation, Rodney was only vaguely aware of it.
He'd have said, if he'd set about formulating an explanation, that he
bought the house as a result of eliminating the alternatives to buying
it. Florence meant to sell it to somebody, and if he didn't buy it, he'd
have to move out. Rather disingenuously, he represented to himself that
his dislike of moving out sprang from the trouble that would be involved
in finding some other place to live in, furnishing it, reorganizing his
establishment. Really, he hadn't time for that. Frederica would have
done it for him in a minute, but he ignored that possibility.
Down underneath these shallow practical considerations, lay the fact
that such a reorganization would have been a tacit acknowledgment of
defeat; not only an acknowledgment to the world, which he'd have liked
to pretend didn't matter much, but an acknowledgment of defeat to
himself.
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