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 He said this so whimsically that I burst out laughing.

"What fools people are!" he continued confidentially. "Here am I complaining because the curate hasn't called, and none of the village bores and busybodies have descended on me. For years I've been looking for a place where I could be stark alone, and now, when I have found it, I can't help feeling slighted and insulted."

"You ought to go off somewhere where you are more appreciated," I said. "Frankly, here you are not a success, and your pro-profession [sic] seems to jar on our susceptibilities."

"Profession!" he cried. "Do you mean my puzzles? Good heavens, I hope you don't think that's the only thing I do! I had to gain an independence somehow, and to a man of a mathematical turn that was the easiest way. I got the idea of Bo-peep from an algebraical formula I happened at the time to be using in some experiments. But apart from