“...The contract was signed frivolously; but even before the girl had reached her full bloom, she filled the greater part of John Holden's life. For her and for the old witch - her mother - he rented a small house from which there was a view of the red-walled city. When the marigolds bloomed by the fountain in the yard, when Amira settled down in accordance with her notions of comfort, and her mother stopped grumbling about the inconvenience of the kitchen, the distance from the market and generally about various household chores, he made the discovery that this house had become his home. Anyone could enter his bachelor's bungalow day or night, and the life he led there had little charm..."