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At this moment the front door opened and Cora appeared.

“Are you going to stay to breakfast?” she asked.”Because, if you are, it is ready.”

I stayed to breakfast.

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 t
he 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.”