he had several different houses and places in different parts, and
far off counties, and other shires, as she heard, and by times he
was at one, and by times at another. The names of two of the places,
Toddrington and Little Wrestham, she knew; but there were others to
which she could give no direction. He had houses in odd parts of
London, too, that he let; and sometimes, when the lodgers' time was
out, he would go, and be never heard of for a month, may be, in one of
them. In short, there was no telling or saying where he was or would
be one day of the week, by where he had been the last."

When Lord Colambre expressed some surprise that an old gentleman,
as he conceived Mr. Ralph Reynolds to be, should change places so
frequently, the old woman answered, "that though her master was a deal
on the wrong side of seventy, and though, to look at him, you'd think
he was glued to his chair, and would fall to pieces if he should stir
out of it, yet he was as alert, and thought no more of going about,
than if he was as young as the gentleman who was now speaking to her.
It was old Mr. Reynolds' delight to come down and surprise his people
at his different places, and see that they were keeping all tight."

"What sort of a man is he?--Is he a miser?" said Lord Colambre.

"He is a miser, and he is not a miser," said the woman. "Now he'd
think as much of the waste of a penny as another man would of a
hundred pounds, and yet he would give a hundred pounds easier
than another would give a penny, when he's in the humour. But his
humour is very odd, and there's no knowing where to have him; he's
cross-grained, and more _positiver_-like than a mule; and his deafness
made him worse in this, because he never heard what nobody said, but
would say on his own way--he was very _odd_, but not _cracked_--no,