"They could have been used very little lately," I said.
"Hardly at all," said Bob; "and this is one of the singular features in connection with the house with which you should be made acquainted. Did not the information Mr. Gascoigne gave you of the last tenant strike you as rather extraordinary?" He turned to my wife for an answer, but she did not reply.
"It struck me as very extraordinary," I said. "I could not understand it at all, nor can I now understand why a house, with so many rooms, with stabling, a large garden, and so many other advantages, should be offered at so low a rent."
Bob looked at me, looked at my wife, hesitated, coughed, cleared his throat, and spoke.
"As a matter of fact, the house has been empty for four or five years."
"Really a matter of fact?" inquired my wife. "Within your own knowledge?"
"Not exactly that; I can speak only of what I have gathered."
"So that your matter of fact," observed my wife shrewdly, "is merely hearsay."
"I must admit as much, I am afraid," he said a little awkwardly.
"Why should you be afraid to admit it?"