"Because this notice is a laughing matter."

"I suppose you think I shall have no applications?"

"Not at all, the doorstep will be crowded from morn to night, but I shall
leave it all to Fanny. Only tell me how much to ask."

"I will arrange about the rent in my interview with the young lady. I
don't think I shall have so many enquiries, for the young lady is to
speak French and English, and also to be respectable. She must not
receive any visits, not even from her father and mother, if she has
them."

"But there will be a mob in front of the house reading the notice."

"All the better. Nothing is the worse for being a little odd."

It happened just as the old woman had foretold; as soon as the notice was
up, everybody stopped to read it, made various comments, and passed on.
On the second day after it was up, my Negro told me that my notice was
printed in full in the St. James's Chronicle, with some amusing remarks.
I had the paper brought up to me, and Fanny translated it. It ran as
follows:

"The landlord of the second and third floors probably occupies the first
floor himself. He must be a man of the world and of good taste, for he
wants a young and pretty lodger; and as he forbids her to receive visits,
he will have to keep her company himself."