I thanked him, and left depressed. I wandered through the town, and
found myself back on the Esplanade. I walked the whole length of it, and
then along the sea bank into the uninhabited region beyond.

Not quite uninhabited, as it proved, for, about half a mile from the
Esplanade, I came suddenly on a cottage with nothing between it and the
sandy beach but a tiny garden plot, with a bit of grass and some
nasturtiums and pinks mixed up with cabbages and potatoes and a row of
scarlet-runners. It looked very clean and inviting, and I said to
myself, "Now, if only that were to let, it's just exactly what I want."

There could be no harm in asking, so I went up to the door and knocked.
No one came. I knocked again. Still no answer. I waited. It seemed to me
there was some movement in the side room, the sliding window of which
was partly open, but was covered with a white curtain.

I knocked again, and the door opened suddenly, and disclosed the small
brown face of a small lame man, looking up at me with a pair of small
but very sharp brown eyes, with, as I now remember, a slightly startled
look in them, as of one caught in the act.

"Yes?" he said, in a sharp voice.

"Oh, I wanted to ask if this cottage is by any chance to let any time in
August."

He hesitated, and then snapped, "How long for?"

"Two, three, or four weeks."

"When d'you want it?"

"About the seventh or eighth."

He pondered the matter, and barked, "Come in."

I went in. It was charming. Nicely, though plainly, furnished, and as
clean as a new pin. I went all over it. Two sitting, four bedrooms,
kitchen, scullery, wire spring mattresses, wool beds, two blankets to
each bed, blankets very white and almost new.

"And the rent?" I asked, wondering how much above my limit I would not
go to possess all this for a month.

"Well," he said, slowly, "three guineas a week is what we generally get,
but if you could wait till the twelfth I'd let it go for two and a half,
if you'll buy the stuff in the garden. I reckon there's a good pound's
worth between the potatoes and cabbages and beans, and they'll be just
about ready by the time you come in. I've made a good let for the three
weeks before you come, and they don't want to go out till the eleventh,
and" (dropping his voice to a confidential whisper) "my missus, she's
expecting to be laid up very soon, and she wants to go to her folks at
Wilborough, else I wouldn't let it go so cheap."

[Illustrat