good use of such small opportunities of distinction as the fates have
offered him? And, so far as I have been able to follow the intricacies of
the parochial politics, your life is not worth two sous in this country,
my dear count. There, I have spoken. A word to the wise, is it not?"

He rose, and threw away his cigarette with a nod and a smile.

"And now I must be returning. You will allow me to pass up that small
pathway that leads past the chateau. Some day I should, above all things,
like to see the chateau. I am interested in old houses, I tell you
frankly."

"I will walk part of the way with you," answered Lory, with a stiffness
which was entirely due to a sense of self-reproach. For it was his
instinct to be hospitable and open-handed and friendly. And Lory would
have liked to ask the colonel then and there to come to the chateau.

"By the way," said the colonel, as they climbed the hill together, "I did
not, of course, mean to suggest that you should sell me the old house
which bears your name--only a piece of land, a few hectares on this
south-west slope, that I may amuse myself with agriculture, as I told
you. Perhaps some day you may reconsider your decision?"

He waited for a reply to this suggestion, or an invitation in response to
the hint that he was interested in the old house. But neither came.

"I am much obliged to you for your warning as to the unpopularity of my
name in this district," said Lory, rather laboriously changing the
subject. "I had, of course, heard something of the same sort before; but
I do not attach much importance to local tradition, do you?"