The Last Tenant

moke again! We have time for a pipe and a chat before my wife comes in. She has many virtues, Bob, and a special one for which she deserves a medal--she does not object to my smo

they come, and try to make the best of them; it is the pleasa

ruin of his prospects; of his subsequent struggles and disappointments; and of his sinking lower and lower until he found himself fixed upon that depressing platform which is crowded with poor clerks struggling with all their

ed to rub along, and it might have been worse than

we were boys; it is Ned and Bob now that we are elderly men. A few pounds more in my purse than i

't judge me by my sad looks--I have a disagreeable impression that I am not a cheerful fellow to contemplate; but if the truth were known there are much harder lots than mine. I have a comical trick of twisting things to my ow

hilosopher, B

et less pleasure out of it than the people who sit in the stalls do out of their half-guineas. If I am a philosopher that is the use I make of my philosophy. Then, Ned, I have the past to think of;

his shabby coat, and the regard I used to have

odded brightly at us, sat down with a piece of needlework i

us hear about the ho

all I know. Have

has," I

out, remarking, as she wiped her

ved Bob, "they are

een used very litt

th which you should be made acquainted. Did not the information Mr. Gascoigne gave you of the last t

l, nor can I now understand why a house, with so many rooms, with stabling, a

y wife, hesitated, coughed, c

he house has been empty

?" inquired my wife. "Wi

can speak only of w

ct," observed my wife shre

, I am afraid," he sa

ou be afraid

to carry out, she was in the habit of seizing upon any chance words which she could construe in such a way as to confuse and confoun

d Bob. "It was only a form of speech

f it," said my wife, with playf

, that you live in the house.' The tenant objects. 'What does it matter,' he says, 'whether I live in the house or not, so long as the rent is paid?' The landlord replies that it matters a g

words pass, Mr. Mi

wing into shape wha

an whom she had sent for to put some locks in order. As she left us she gave Bob rather a queer look.

I have had the pleasure of seeing your wife

tened," I said, "but wha

ve heard that the

table. "And that is the

like it, d

the last tenant d

umably paid a large sum of money every quarter-day for value not received, why should he wish to renew? The house is haunted, he will not live in it, he never even opens the door to say how do you do to the property which is costing him so dear, and now that his responsibility is at an end he wa

rious," I observed. "What w

igne say a hundred

us for ninety. Have yo

N

igne has,

believe

ou learnt all yo

n the landlord and the last tenant, but nothing transpired as to its nature while I was present, and it is my belief that Mr. Gascoigne is as much in the dark as I am. There had been trouble in obtaining the keys, I understood. A house agent, you know, never refuses business, and Mr. Gascoigne put the place on his books, but has not pushed it in any way. He did not mention it to you till he h

head; I pondered

my hilarity; I had no time, indeed, for my wife re-entered the room, and resumed her seat and her needlework. I composed my features the moment I heard her footstep; she would certainly have asked why I

id, in a suspicious tone. "Let me see--I thi

has something of the utmost importance to impart

d she turned her eyes upon me, with an idea

ance at him, "what is this something of the hi

you should happen to hear of it when it was too late to retract you might say with very good reason, 'But why did not Mr.

t out, Mr

y withdrew the unfortunate phrase, "I mean

frow

ad n

in way, They say

smiling, "is that al

picuously nonplused, "because I don't know

ng with amusement. "Merely hearsay. You might b

n't k

oes It

an't

, that the news Mr. Millet has given us m

pectations. She made no more of a haunted house th

ase you, Maria, but till this moment I had no idea that your taste lay in the direction

anging him at once, and it seems to me to apply to the house in Lamb's Terrace. If M

rgone a radical change. For my part, I am much obliged to Bob. It wa

and then, addressing him as though she would give him a

ve never

is his

not

does he

not

away the character of an empty house upon such slender grounds? It is like

ly, "that what I have said has be

e other thing. "Edward, our best plan will be to go a

at all events. What do you say to coming here tomo

her a second visit would be agreeable to

; perhaps we shall be

t of the evening carefully avoided the subject which had so nearly brought him to grief. At te

id, in her most amiable to

I replied, and dispo

short time after our heads touch the pillows. But this night proved to be an exception,

asleep,

Mar

d drowsily, "I have a

ve

and Mr. Millet laid a

ea, Maria; it is a p

e say you thought yourselves very clever. It hasn't raised my opinion of

d. "Bob Millet is the simplest fellow in th

is anxious to please you; he will find out by and by, pe

thought. "His ill-

e a conundrum, Maria;

the plot," she

en I know w

that I should be frightened to go near it. You ought to have known me better, Edward, and I must say you did it very cl

longer than usual by my annoyance at the prejud