I am now living in my own house, not in the two tower rooms, but in the
whole mansion, of which my former tenant, Cora, is now mistress
supreme. Mr. and Mrs. Vincent expect to spend the next summer here and
take care of the house while we are travelling.
Mr. Barker, an excellent fellow and a most thorough business man, still
manages my affairs, and there is nothing on the place that flourishes
so vigorously as the bed of pinks which I got from the miller's wife.
By the way, when I went back to my lodging on that eventful day, the
miller's wife met me at the door.
"I kept your breakfast waitin' for you for a good while," said she,
"but as you didn't come, I supposed you were takin' breakfast in your
own house, and I cleared it away."
"Do you know who I am?" I exclaimed.
"Oh, yes, sir," she said. "We did not at first, but when everybody
began to talk about it we couldn't help knowin' it."
"Everybody!" I gasped. "And may I ask what you and everybody said
about me?"
"I think it was the general opinion, sir," said she, "that you were
suspicious of them tenants of yours, and nobody wondered at it, for
when city people gets into the country and on other people's property,
there's no trustin' them out of your sight for a minute."
I could not let the good woman hold this opinion of my tenants, and I
briefly told her the truth. She looked at me with moist admiration in
her eyes.
"I am glad to hear that, sir," said she. "I like it very much. But if
I was you I wouldn't be in a hurry to tell my husband and the people in
the neighborhood about it. They might be a little disappointed at
first, for they had a mighty high opinion of you when they thought that
you was layin' low here to keep an eye on them tenants of yours."