uffering Denry.
He moaned on a bed for about half-an-hour, and then fell asleep. And in
the middle of the night, in the dark, strange house, she also fell
asleep.

VI

The next morning she arose and went forth, and in about half-an-hour
returned. Denry was still in bed, but his health seemed to have resumed
its normal excellence. Mrs Machin burst upon him in such a state of
complicated excitement as he had never before seen her in.

"Denry," she cried, "what do you think?"

"What?" said he.

"I've just been down home, and they're--they're pulling the house down.
All the furniture's out, and they've got all the tiles off the roof, and
the windows out. And there's a regular crowd watching."

Denry sat up.

"And I can tell you another piece of news," said he. "Mr Cecil Wilbraham
is dead."

"Dead!" she breathed.

"Yes," said Denry. "_I think he's served his purpose._ As we're
here, we'll stop here. Don't forget it's the most sensible kind of a
house you've ever seen. Don't forget that Mrs Cotterill could run it
without a servant and have herself tidy by ten o'clock in a morning."

Mrs Machin perceived then, in a flash of terrible illumination, that
there never had been any Cecil Wilbraham; that Denry had merely invented
him and his long moustaches and his wall eye for the purpose of getting
the better of his mother. The whole affair was an immense swindle upon
her. Not a Mr Cecil Wilbraham, but her own son had bought her cottage
over her head and jockeyed her out of it beyond any chance of getting
into it again. And to defeat his mother the rascal had not simply
perverted the innocent Nellie Cotterill to some co-operation in his
scheme, but he had actually bought four other cottages, because the
landlord would not sell one alone, and he was actually demolishing
property to the sole end of stopping her from re-entering it!

Of course, the entire town soon knew of the upshot of the battle, of the
year-long battle, between Denry and his mother, and the means adopted by
Denry to win. The town also had been hoodwinked, but it did not mind
that. It loved its Denry the more, and seeing that he was now properly
established in the most remarkable house in the district, it soon
afterwards made him a Town Councillor as some reward for his talent in
amusing it.

And Denry would say to himself:

"Everything went like clockwork, except the mustard and water. I didn't
bargain for the mustard and water. And yet, if I wa