Insert a, an or the if necessary.
There was an-athe knock on an-athe door. I opened it and found an-athe small dark man in an-athe blue overcoat and an-athe woolen cap. He said he was an-athe employee of an-athe gas company and had come to read an-athe meter. But I had an-athe suspicion that he wasn’t speaking an-athe truth because an-athe meter readers usually wear an-athe peaked caps. However, I took him to an-athe meter, which is in an-athe dark corner under an-athe stairs ( an-athe meters are usually in an-athe dark corners under an-athe stairs). I asked if he had an-athe torch; he said he disliked torches and always read an-athe meters by an-athe light of an-athe match.
I remarked that if there was an-athe leak in an-athe gaspipe there might be an-athe explosion while he was reading an-athe meter. He said, “As an-athe matter of an-athe fact, there was an-athe explosion in an-athe last house I visited; and Mr Smith, an-athe owner of an-athe house, was burnt in an-athe face.” “Mr Smith was holding an-athe lighted match at an-athe time of an-athe explosion.”
To prevent an-athe possible repetition of this accident, I lent him an-athe torch. He switched on an-athe torch, read an-athe meter and wrote an-athe reading down on an-athe back of an-athe envelope. I said in an-athe surprise that an-athe meter readers usually put an-athe readings down in an-athe book. He said that he had had an-athe book but that it had been burnt in an-athe fire in an-athe Mr Smith’s house.
By this time I had come to an-athe conclusion that he wasn’t an-athe genuine meter reader; and an-athe moment he left an-athe house I rang an-athe police.