day, the Vincents would come on the following Monday, and
I would sail on Wednesday. I would go on Tuesday to inquire if they
found everything to their satisfaction. This would be a very proper
attention from a landlord about to leave the country.

When I reached Boynton I determined to walk to my house, for I did not
wish to encumber myself with a hired vehicle. I might be asked to stay
to luncheon. A very strange feeling came over me as I entered my
grounds. They were not mine. For the time being they belonged to
somebody else. I was merely a visitor or a trespasser if the Vincents
thought proper so to consider me. If they did not like people to walk
on the grass I had no right to do it.

None of my servants had been left on the place, and the maid who came
to the door informed me that Mr. Vincent had gone to New York that
morning, and that Mrs. Vincent and her daughter were out driving. I
ventured to ask if she thought they would soon return, and she answered
that she did not think they would, as they had gone to Rock Lake,
which, from the way they talked about it, must be a long way off.

Rock Lake! When I had driven over there with my friends, we had taken
luncheon at the inn and returned in the afternoon. And what did they
know of Rock Lake? Who had told them of it? That officious Barker, of
course.

"Will you leave a message, sir?" said the maid, who, of course, did not
know me.

"No," said I, and as I still stood gazing at the piazza floor, she
remarked that if I wished to call again she would go out and speak to
the coachman and ask him if anything had been said to him about the
time of the party's return.

Worse and worse! Their coachman had not driven them! Some one who
knew the country had been their companion. They were not acquainted in
the neighborhood, and there could not be a shadow of a doubt that it
was that obtrusive Barker who had indecently thrust himself upon them
on the very next day after their arrival, and had thus snatched from me
this last interview upon which I had counted so earnestly.

I had no right to ask any more questions. I left no message nor any
name, and I had no excuse for saying I would call again.

I got back to my hotel without having met any one whom I knew, and that
night I received a note from Barker, stating that he had fully intended
coming to the steamer to see me off, but that an engagement would
prevent him. He sent, however, his best good wis