I’m hanged if I tell it you! I am here for rest and quiet, sir. I don’t ask you your name. I can’t for the life of me see what right you have to ask me mine, or to question me at all, for that matter.”

He favored me with a brief glance of extraordinary suspicion. It faded away in mere surprise, and, next instant, my elderly and reverend friend was causing me some compunction by coloring like a boy.

“You may think my curiosity mere impertinence, sir,” said he; “you would think otherwise if you


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of the passing hour. And he suffered enough from brazenly meddlesome and self-seeking folk, from impudent and inquisitive intruders, to justify some suspicion of old acquaintances suddenly styling themselves old friends, and of distant connections newly and unduly eager to claim relationship. Many I


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