uck; his wife in a mess with another man, ran up
big bills against him--he wanted to get away and never see the town
again. So I bought the place and asked the agent to rent it for me,
for I was pretty busy just then. A little later he told me he had seen
an especially good tenant--a well-to-do jeweller and his family, who
seemed disposed to take a long lease and improve the property.

"'You certainly have the luck, doctor!' he said.

"I remember I leaned out of my buggy and lectured him.

"'Luck!' says I. 'Nonsense, man! I get good tenants because I keep
good repairs in good houses. You put down two and two and you get back
four. Mathematics is under this world!'

"Pompous, wasn't I? But I was only forty. Only forty..."

His eyes gleamed at them from under his shaggy, grey brows; he seemed
saturated with life, full of experiences.

"Well, I got my rent every month, and I gave 'em permission to put an
evergreen hedge around the place, and I paid half the costs of piping
water into the stable; the jeweller kept a horse and runabout for his
wife. Then, just before the year was up, the agent called.

"'I'm afraid we won't get any renewal on this, doctor,' he said.

"'Why not? Not good enough for him any longer?' said I.

"'I'm afraid it's too good,' says he. 'You'll see it in the papers
to-morrow, but I had it straight from him. His wife has skipped with
his head clerk and they've taken most of the stock and all the money.
He's nearly crazy.'

"'For heaven's sake!' said I. 'I thought they were a decent lot
enough.'

"'So they were, I'll swear to it,' said he, 'but lately--I've seen her
off and on'--and he looked rather conscious, I thought--' she's struck
me differently. She's a queer woman.'

"Well, the upshot of it was, I let him off as easily as I could--he had
three children on his hands and big debts to pay--and I bought a lot of
his stuff and paid for the evergreen hedge. The woman never came back
and he moved East. So much for them.

"I advertised the house, and that week the rectory of the principal
Episcopal Church burned to the ground, and while they were building it
again--in stone, of course--they decided to rent that house of mine,
and of course I was pleased, because a lot of good, solid people see
the property, in a case like that. I've always thought I'd like to
develop a whole new section somewhere ... I had ideas ... but I never
got the time. O Lord, the time! Slipping, s