to fire the genius of a young man

A deaf man may be anything from hard of hearing to as deaf as a post; a blind man may be as blind as a bat or an owl; he may be gravel-blind or stone-blind; a bald man as bald as a coot or as a billiard ball.

and now she professes a / hot-house, which I think is a very ill house too.

Cohousing still serves only a tiny fraction of the population; the majority of people seem to be mishoused.