"So I had to be content with that, though it was the first time that there had ever been any secret between us. I gave her a check, and I never thought any more of the matter. It may have nothing to do with what came afterwards, but I thought it only right to mention it.
"Well, I told you just now that there is a cottage not far from our house.
There is just a field between us, but to reach it you have to go along the road and then turn down a lane.
Just beyond it is a nice little grove of Scotch firs, and I used to be very fond of strolling down there, for trees are always a neighborly kind of things.
The cottage had been standing empty this eight months, and it was a pity, for it was a pretty two-storied place, with an old-fashioned porch and honeysuckle about it.
I have stood many a time and thought what a neat little homestead it would make.
"Well, last Monday evening I was taking a stroll down that way, when I met an empty van coming up the lane, and saw a pile of carpets and things lying about on the grass-plot beside the porch.
It was clear that the cottage had at last been let.
I walked past it, and wondered what sort of folk they were who had come to live so near us.
And as I looked I suddenly became aware that a face was watching me out of one of the upper windows.