to-morrow, perhaps. You will not mind? It is very careless of me,
but seeing you about the place and imagining that you were an
intruder, made me angry, and I started off in a hurry. Now walk by
my side up to the house, please, and talk to me. It is so
interesting for me to meet men," he went on, as they started along
the straight path, "who do things in life; who go to foreign
countries, meet strange people, and have new experiences. I have
been a good many years like this, you know."

"It is a great affliction," Hamel murmured sympathetically.

"In my youth I was an athlete," Mr. Fentolin continued. "I played
cricket for the Varsity and for my county. I hunted, too, and shot.
I did all the things a man loves to do. I might still shoot, they
tell me, but my strength has ebbed away. I am too weak to lift a
gun, too weak even to handle a fishing-rod. I have just a few
hobbies in life which keep me alive. Are you a politician, Mr.
Hamel?"

"Not in the least," Hamel replied. "I have been out of England too
long to keep in touch with politics."

"Naturally," Mr. Fentolin agreed. "It amuses me to follow the
course of events. I have a good many friends in London and abroad
who are kind to me, who keep me informed, send me odd bits of
information not available for every one, and it amuses me to put
these things together in my mind and to try and play the prophet.
I was in the Foreign Office once, you know. I take up my paper
every morning, and it is one of my chief interests to see how near
my own speculations come to the truth. Just now for example, there