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The House 'Round the Corner
CHAPTER I
WHEREIN THE HOUSE RECEIVES A NEW TENANT
The train had panted twelve miles up a sinuous valley, halting at three tiny stations on the way; it dwelt so long at the fourth that the occupant of a first-class carriage raised his eyes from the book he was reading. He found the platform packed with country folk, all heading in the same direction. Hitherto, this heedless traveller had been aware of some station-master or porter bawling an unintelligible name; now, his fellow-passengers seemed to know what place this was without being told; moreover, they seemed to be alighting there.
A porter, whose face, hands, and clothing were of one harmonious tint, suggesting that he had been dipped bodily in some brownish dye, and then left to dry in the sun, opened the door.
"Aren't you gettin' out, sir?" he inquired, and his tone implied both surprise and pain.
"Is this Nuttonby?" said the passenger.
"Yes, sir."
"Why this crush of traffic?"
"It's market day, sir."
"Thanks. I didn't expect to see such a crowd. Have you a parcels office, where I can leave some baggage?"
"Yes, sir."
"Hang on to this bag, then. There are three boxes in the van. You'll need a barrow – they're heavy!"
By this time, the man who knew so little of important Nuttonby – which held 3,005 inhabitants in the 1911 census, having increased by two since 1901 – had risen, and was collecting a fisherman's outfit, and some odds and ends of personal belongings. He followed the porter, who, on eyeing the rods and pannier, and with some knowledge of "county" manners, had accepted the stranger as entitled to hold a first-class ticket. Sure enough, the boxes were heavy. The guard had to assist in handling them.
"By gum!" said the porter, when he tried to lift the first on to a trolley.
"Books," explained the traveler.
"I thought mebbe they wuz lead," said the porter.
"Some books have that quality," said the other.
The guard, a reader in his spare time, smiled. The owner of so much solid literature seized a stout leather handle.
"I'll give you a hand," he said, and the porter soon added to his slight store of facts concerning the newcomer. This tall, sparsely-built man in tweeds and a deer-stalker cap was no weakling.
The platform was nearly empty when the porter began to trundle the loaded trolley along its length. A pert youth appeared from nowhere, and cried "Ticket!" firmly, almost threateningly. He was given a first-class ticket from York, and a receipt for excess luggage. The bit of white paste-board startled him. "Thank you, sir," he said. First-class passengers were rare birds at Nuttonby; too late, he knew he ought to have said "Ticket, please!"
The same pert youth, appearing again from nowhere, officiated in the parcels office. He noticed that none of the articles bore a name or initials; they were brand-new; their only railway labels were "York, from King's Cross," and "Nuttonby, from York."
"Book the bag and these small articles separately," he was instructed. "I may want them soon. The boxes may be sent for this afternoon; I don't know yet." He turned to the porter: "Is there a house agent in the town?"
"Yes, sir – two."
"Which is the better – the man with the larger clientèle– sorry, I mean with the greater number of houses on his books?"
"Well, sir, Walker an' Son have bin in business here fifty year an' more."
"I'll try Walker. Where's his place?"
"Next door the 'Red Lion,' sir."
Then the youth, anxious to atone, and rather quicker-witted than the brown-hued one, got in a word.
"The 'Red Lion' is halfway up the main street, sir. Turn to your right when you leave here, an' you're there in two minutes."
"I'll show the gentleman," said the porter, who had decided a month ago that this blooming kid was putting on airs. He was as good as his word – or nearly so. A tip of half a crown was stupefying, but he gathered his wits in time to say brokenly at the exit:
"Wu-Wu-Walker's is straight up, sir."
Straight up the stranger went. The wide street was crammed with stalls, farmers' carts, carriers' carts, dog-carts, even a couple of automobiles, for Wednesday, being market day, was also police-court day and Board of Guardians day. He passed unheeded. On Wednesdays, Nuttonby was a metropolis; on any other day in the week he would have drawn dozens of curious eyes, peeping surreptitiously over short curtains, or more candidly in the open. Of course, he was seen by many, since Nuttonby was not so metropolitan that it failed to detect a new face, even on Wednesdays; but his style and appearance were of the gentry; Nuttonby decided that he had strayed in from some "big" house in the district.
Walker & Son, it would seem, were auctioneers, land valuers, and probate estimators as well as house agents. Their office was small, but not retiring. It displayed a well-developed rash of sale posters, inside and out. One, in particular, was heroic in size. It told of a "spacious mansion, with well-timbered park," having been put up for auction – five years earlier. Whiteness of paper and blackness of type suggested that Walker & Son periodically renewed this aristocrat among auction announcements – perhaps to kindle a selling spirit among the landed gentry, a notoriously conservative and hold-tight class.
A young man, seated behind a counter, reading a sporting newspaper, and smoking a cigarette, rose hastily when the caller entered.
"Yes, sir," he said, thereby implying instant readiness to engage in one or all of the firm's activities.
"Are you Mr. Walker?" said the newcomer.
"Yes, sir."
"Ah! I thought you might be the son."
"Well, I am, if it comes to that. Do you want my father?"
Walker, junior, was a Nuttonby "nut" – a sharp young blade who did not tolerate chaff.
"I want to rent a furnished house in or near a quiet country village, where there is some good fishing," was the answer. "Now, you can determine whether I should trouble Mr. Walker, senior, or not?"
"No trouble at all, sir! He'll be here in ten seconds."
Walker, junior, had nearly made the same mistake as the ticket-collecting youth; however, he estimated time correctly. He went out, put his head through the open window of the "Red Lion's" bar-parlor, and shouted: "Dad, you're wanted!" Thus, within ten seconds, the stranger saw the firm!
He repeated his need, and there was a great parade of big-leafed books, while the elder Walker ascertained the prospective client's exact requirements. Whittled down to bare facts, they amounted to this: A house, in a small and remote village, and a trout stream. The absolute seclusion of the village and its diminutive proportions were insisted on, and property after property was rejected, though the Walkers were puzzled to know why.
This distinguished-looking man wished to find a dwelling far removed from any social center. His ideal was a tiny moorland hamlet,
