would you like presently to come with me into the City and see some
really fine building? or--what shall it be?"

"Well," said I, "as I am a stranger, I must let you choose for me."

In point of fact, I did not by any means want to be 'amused' just
then; and also I rather felt as if the old man, with his knowledge of
past times, and even a kind of inverted sympathy for them caused by
his active hatred of them, was as it were a blanket for me against
the cold of this very new world, where I was, so to say, stripped
bare of every habitual thought and way of acting; and I did not want
to leave him too soon. He came to my rescue at once, and said -

"Wait a bit, Dick; there is someone else to be consulted besides you
and the guest here, and that is I. I am not going to lose the
pleasure of his company just now, especially as I know he has
something else to ask me. So go to your Welshmen, by all means; but
first of all bring us another bottle of wine to this nook, and then
be off as soon as you like; and come again and fetch our friend to go
westward, but not too soon."

Dick nodded smilingly, and the old man and I were soon alone in the
great hall, the afternoon sun gleaming on the red wine in our tall
quaint-shaped glasses. Then said Hammond:

"Does anything especially puzzle you about our way of living, now you
have heard a good deal and seen a little of it?"

Said I: "I think what puzzles me most is how it all came about."