“There is one of his madnesses,” she said. “The speculators in this new neighborhood have offered him I don’t know how many thousand pounds for the ground that house stands on. It was originally the manor-house of the district. Dexter purchased it many years since in one of his freaks of fancy. He has no old family associations with the place; the walls are all but tumbling about his ears; and the money offered would really be of use to him. But no! He refused the proposal of the enterprising speculators by letter in these words: ‘My house is a standing monument of the picturesque and beautiful, amid the mean, dishonest, and groveling constructions of a mean, dishonest, and groveling age. I keep my house, gentlemen, as a useful lesson to you. Look at it while you are building around me, and blush, if you can, for your work.’ Was there ever such an absurd letter written yet? Hush! I hear footsteps in the garden. Here comes his cousin. His cousin is a woman. I may as well tell you that, or you might mistake her for a man in the dark.”
A rough, deep voice, which I should certainly never have supposed to be the voice of a woman, hailed us from the inner side of the paling.
“Who’s there?”
“Mrs. Macallan,” answered my mother-in-law.
“What do you want?”
“We want to see Dexter.”
“You can’t see him.”
“Why not?”
“What did you say your name was?”
“Macallan. Mrs. Macallan. Eustace Macallan’s mother. Now do you understand?”