Rumors of it stole up to the city, and down came reporters and special correspondents to describe it with an unctuous eloquence and picturesque splendor of style known only to them.

The builder held his tongue, dear Fanny.

The workmen speculated upon the subject, but their speculations were no more valuable than those of other people.

They received private bribes to tell; and all the great newspapers announced that, at an enormous expense, they had secured the exclusive intelligence, and the exclusive intelligence was always wrong.
The country was in commotion, dear Fanny, about a simple tower that a man was building upon his land.

But the wonder of wonders, and the exasperation of exasperations, was, that the farmer whose estate adjoined never so much as spoke of the tower--was never known to have asked about it--and, indeed, it was not clear that he knew of the building of any tower within a hundred miles of him.