"'You've got a bill in the winder,' said he, 'of a room to let.' "'Yes, sir,' I answered, hardly giving myself time to look at him, I was that glad of the chance of letting the room; 'would you like to see it?' "'I should,' said he. "And in he walked, and up the stairs, after me, to the second floor front. It didn't strike me at the time, but it did often afterwards when I listened for 'em in vain, that I didn't hear his footsteps as he follered me up-stairs. Never, from the moment he entered this house, have I heard the least sound from his feet, and yet he wears what looks like boots. He's never asked me to clean 'em, and I'd rather be torn to pieces with red hot pinchers than do it now. "'It's a cheerful room, sir,' said I to him. 'Looks out on the square.' "'Charming,' he said, 'the room, the square, you, everything.' "'That's a funny way of talking,' I thought, and I said out loud, 'Do you think it will suit, sir?' "'Do I think it will suit?' he said. 'I am sure it will suit. I take it from this minute. What's the rent?' "'With attendance, sir?' I asked. "'With or without attendance,' he answered; 'it matters not.' "Not 'It don't matter,' as ordinary people say, but 'It matters not,' for all the world like one of them foreign fellers we see on the stage. I told him the rent, reckoning attendance, and he said: "'Good. The bargain is made. I am yours, and you are mine.' "And then he laughed in a way that almost made my hair stand on end. It wasn't the laugh of a human creature; there was something unearthly about it. As a rule, a body's pleased when another body laughs, but this laugh made me shiver all over; you know the sensation, sir, like cold water running down your back. Then, and a good many times since when he's been speaking or laughing, I felt myself turn faint with sech a swimming sensation that I had to ketch hold of something to keep myself from sinking to the ground. "'I beg your pardon, sir,' I said, when I come to, 'but if you've no objections I'd like a reference.' "'Of course you would,' he said, laughing again, 'and here it is.' "With that he gives me a sovering, and orders me to light the fire. There's that about him as makes it unpossible not to do as he orders you to, so on my knees I went there and then, and lit the fire. "'Good,' he said. 'I couldn't have done it better myself. Mrs. Lemon--' and you might have knocked me down with a feather when I heard him speak my name. How did he get to know it? _I_ never told him.--Mrs. Lemon,' said he, 'I see in your face that you'd like to ask me a question or two.' "'I would, sir,' I said, shaking and trembling all over. 'If I may make so bold, sir, are you a married man?' "He put his hand on his heart, and, grinning all over his face, answered, 'Mrs. Lemon, I am, and have ever been, single.' "'Might I be so bold as to ask your name, sir?' I said. "'Devlin,' said he. "'Dev--what?' I garsped.