"You have let others occupy this house then?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am, one summer I did. Let it furnished to some folks name
of Davidson, from Chicago."

"And you haven't rented it since?"

"No, ma'am, not but that once."

She was silent for a moment. Then she said: "I am surprised that
it hasn't been occupied always. Do you ask such a VERY high rent,
Mr. Winslow?"

Jed looked doubtful. "Why, no, ma'am," he answered. "I didn't
cal'late 'twas so very high, considerin' that 'twas just for
'summer and furnished and all. The Davidsons paid forty dollars a
month, but--"

"FORTY dollars! A month? And furnished like that? You mean a
week, don't you?"

Mr. Winslow looked at her. The slow smile wandered across his
face. He evidently suspected a joke.

"Why, no, ma'am," he drawled. "You see, they was rentin' the
place, not buyin' it."

"But forty dollars a month is VERY cheap."

"Is it? Sho! Now you speak of it I remember that Captain Sam
seemed to cal'late 'twas. He said I ought to have asked a hundred,
or some such foolishness. I told him he must have the notion that
I was left out of the sweet ile when they pickled the other thirty-
nine thieves. Perhaps you've read the story, ma'am," he suggested.

His visitor laughed. "I have read it," she said. Then she added,
plainly more to herself than to him: "But even forty is far too
much, of course."

Jed was surprised and a little hurt.

"Yes--er--yes, ma'am," he faltered. "Well, I--I was kind of 'fraid
'twas, but Colonel Davidson seemed to think 'twas about fair, so--"

"Oh, you misunderstand me. I didn't mean that forty dollars was
too high a rent. It isn't, it is a very low one. I meant that it
was more than I ought to think of paying. You see, Mr. Winslow, I
have been thinking that we might live here in Orham, Barbara and I.
I like the town; and the people, most of those I have met, have
been very pleasant and kind. And it is necessary--that is, it
seems to me preferable--that we live, for some years at least, away
from the city. This little house of yours is perfect. I fell in
love with the outside of it at first sight. Now I find the inside
even more delightful. I"--she hesitated, and then added--"I don't
suppose you would care to let it unfurnished at--at a lower rate?"

Jed was very much embarrassed. The idea that his caller would make
such a proposition as this had not occurred to him for a moment.
If it had the lost key