up. And a little later, Rose Chudd, that
prim and efficient young widow from lower down the street, came into the
house and controlled it as if it had been her own. Mrs Machin, whose
constitution was hardy, arose in about a week, cured, and duly dismissed
Rose with wages and without thanks. But Rose had been. Like the
_Signal's_ burglars, she had "effected an entrance." And the house
had not been turned upside down. Mrs Machin, though she tried, could not
find fault with the result of Rose's uncontrolled activities.

III

One morning--and not very long afterwards, in such wise did Fate seem to
favour the young at the expense of the old--Mrs Machin received two
letters which alarmed and disgusted her. One was from her landlord,
announcing that he had sold the house in which she lived to a Mr
Wilbraham of London, and that in future she must pay the rent to the
said Mr Wilbraham or his legal representatives. The other was from a
firm of London solicitors announcing that their client, Mr Wilbraham,
had bought the house, and that the rent must be paid to their agent,
whom they would name later.

Mrs Machin gave vent to her emotion in her customary manner: "Bless us!"

And she showed the impudent letters to Denry.

"Oh!" said Denry. "So he has bought them, has he? I heard he was going
to."

"Them?" exclaimed Mrs Machin. "What else has he bought?"

"I expect he's bought all the five--this and the four below, as far as
Downes's. I expect you'll find that the other four have had notices just
like these. You know all this row used to belong to the Wilbrahams. You
surely must remember that, mother?"

"Is he one of the Wilbrahams of Hillport, then?"

"Yes, of course he is."

"I thought the last of 'em was Cecil, and when he'd beggared himself
here he went to Australia and died of drink. That's what I always heard.
We always used to say as there wasn't a Wilbraham left."

"He did go to Australia, but he didn't die of drink. He disappeared, and
when he'd made a fortune he turned up again in Sydney, so it seems. I
heard he's thinking of coming back here to settle. Anyhow, he's buying
up a lot of the Wilbraham property. I should have thought you'd have
heard of it. Why, lots of people have been talking about it."

"Well," said Mrs Machin, "I don't like it."

She objected to a law which permitted a landlord to sell a house over
the head of a tenant who had occupied it for more than thirty years. In
the course of the m