'Are warned that all rents will be re-dooced by fifty
per cent.' Well, well!" and she wandered out again.
But presently she was back once more, this time with the tablecloth,
which she proceeded to spread, though still lost in dreamy abstraction.
"At first I couldn't an' I wouldn't believe it, Mr. Geoffrey--no, sir!"
she continued in the same rapt voice. "But every one's got a notice same
as mine, so I guess it must be true--don't ye think?"
"Not a doubt of it!" answered Ravenslee.
"But th' burnin' question as I asks myself is--who? It's signed 'By
Order', y' see, well--whose? One sure thing, it ain't Mulligan."
"But he owns the place, doesn't he?"
"He did, Mr. Geoffrey, an' that's what worries me--continual. What I
demands is--who now?"
"Echo, Mrs. Trapes, methinks doth answer 'Who?' By the way, it
was--er--salmon and green peas I think you--"
"My land, that bit o' salmon'll bile itself t' rags!" and incontinent
she vanished.
However, in due time Ravenslee sat down to as tasty a supper as might be
and did ample justice to it, while Mrs.
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