I was overcome with disappointment; but perhaps she would ask her mother. We went into the house and she left me in the dining-room. Presently the mother came; a tired looking creature who had once been pretty, like the girl, but was now frayed and worn. She was very sorry, but the house was let. I was just too late. It had only been let the previous day. Did I want it for long?
"Not more than twelve months certain," I told her.
She threw up her hands. "Just my ill-luck," she cried, dismally. "I have let it for two months, and we go out this evening. But perhaps I could get out of it."
"That is not worth while. I should not want it for a month yet, and perhaps could wait for two. Could I see over the house?"
In this way I was taken into every nook and corner of it; and enabled to fix every room and passage and door in my memory. And then I inspected the garden and outside places.
"Do you leave your servants?" I asked, at the end of a number of questions.
"We keep but one. My daughter and I live alone, and do most of the work when we are at home. And the servant goes away with us."
"An excellent arrangement. I have my own servants. I wonder now if we could induce your tenant to let me have the place in a month. Who is he?"
"It is taken for Count von Ostelen—but I do not know him. The agents have done everything. I could ask them."
"Do so, and let me know;" and I jotted down at random a name and address to which she could write, and left.