pted Dutton; 'the fellow has no wits to lose.
That being so---- But let us talk of something else.' We did so, but
on his part very incoherently, and I soon bade him good-night.

This was December, and it was in February the following year that
Dutton again called at our place of business. There was a strange,
stern, iron meaning in his face. 'I am in a great hurry,' he said,
'and I have only called to say, that I shall be glad if you will run
over to the farm to-morrow on a matter of business. You have seen,
perhaps, in the paper, that my dwelling-house took fire the night
before last. You have not? Well, it is upon that I would consult you.
Will you come?' I agreed to do so, and he withdrew.

The fire had not, I found, done much injury. It had commenced in a
kind of miscellaneous store-room; but the origin of the fire appeared
to me, as it did to the police-officers that had been summoned,
perfectly unaccountable. 'Had it not been discovered in time, and
extinguished,' I observed to Mrs Rivers, 'you would all have been
burned in your beds.'

'Why, no,' replied that lady, with some strangeness of manner. 'On the
night of the fire, Annie and I slept at Mr Elsworthy's' (I have
omitted to notice, that my brother-in-law and family had returned to
their old residence), 'and Mr Dutton remained in London, whither he
had gone to see the play.'

'But the servants might have perished?'

'No. A whim, apparently, has lately seized Mr Dutton, that no servant
or labourer shall sleep under the same roof with himself; and those
new outhouses, where their bedrooms are placed are, you see,
completely detached, and are indeed, as regards this dwelling, made
fire-proof.'

At this moment Mr Dutton appeared, and interrupted our conversation.
He took me aside. 'Well,' he said, 'to what conclusion have you come?
The work of an incendiary, is it not? Somebody, too, that knows I am
not insured'----

'Not insured!'

'No; not for this dwelling-house. I did not renew the policy some
months ago.'

'Then,' I jestingly remarked, 'you, at all events, are safe from any
accusation of having set fire to your premises with the intent to
defraud the insurers.'

'To be sure--to be sure, I am,' he rejoined with quick earnestness, as
if taking my remark seriously. 'That is quite certain. Some one, I am
pretty sure it must be,' he presently added, 'that owes me a
grudge--with whom I have quarrelled, eh?'

'It may be so, certainly.'

'It _must