Mr Bleaney was the ____ of the house.

Explanation

The landlady is letting his old room to the speaker.

Note: Passage II is Philip Larkin's 'Mr Bleaney' (The Whitsun Weddings, 1964), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. The speaker takes the shabby rented room of the departed Mr Bleaney, whose landlady recalls his dull routines. He comes to fear that how one lives — 'one hired box' — may measure one's worth.