He had no housekeeper; but his old house, furnished as it had been
in his mother's lifetime, was cleanly and daintily kept. The
quaint rooms were as free from dust and disorder as a woman could
have had them. This was known, because Jasper Dale occasionally
had his hired man's wife, Mrs. Griggs, in to scrub for him. On
the morning she was expected he betook himself to woods and
fields, returning only at night-fall. During his absence Mrs.
Griggs was frankly wont to explore the house from cellar to attic,
and her report of its condition was always the same--"neat as
wax." To be sure, there was one room that was always locked
against her, the west gable, looking out on the garden and the
hill of pines beyond. But Mrs. Griggs knew that in the lifetime
of Jasper Dale's mother it had been unfurnished. She supposed it
still remained so, and felt no especial curiosity concerning it,
though she always tried the door.
Jasper Dale had a good farm, well cultivated; he had a large
garden where he worked most of his spare time in summer; it was
supposed that he read a great deal, since the postmistress
declared that he was always getting books and magazines by mail.
He seemed well contented with his existence and people let him
alone, since that was the greatest kindness they could do him.
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