"But I tell you," persisted Peter, who didn't at all like the visitor's manners, "that you've made a mistake. This ain't the house."
"Ain't what house, I'd like to know?"
"It ain't the house you think it is," said the old man, a little puzzled by this question.
"And what house do I think it is? Tell me that, you old——"
Probably the sentence would have been finished in a manner uncomplimentary to Peter, but perhaps, from motives of policy, the stranger suppressed what he had intended to say.
"I don't know," returned Peter, at a loss for a reply, "but there's a mistake somewhere. Nobody comes to see me."
"I shouldn't think they would," muttered the outsider, "but every rule has its exceptions, and somebody's come to see you now."
"You've mistaken the person."
"No, I haven't. Little chance of making a mistake. You're old Peter Manson."