it. Keep talking to me about things. That's the plan. There are heaps
of subjects. The weather, for instance, as a start. Hot, isn't it?"

"We're going to have a storm. There's a sort of feel in the air. We'd
better go back, I think."

"Tush! And possibly bah!" said Jimmy, digging the paddle into the
water. "We've only just started. I say, who was that man I saw you
talking to after lunch?"

"How soon after lunch?"

"Just before the rehearsal. He was with your father. Short chap with a
square face. Dressed in gray. I hadn't seen him before."

"Oh, that was Mr. Galer. A New York friend of father's."

"Did you know him out in New York?"

"I didn't. But he seems to know father very well."

"What's his name, did you say?"

"Galer. Samuel Galer. Did you ever hear of him?"

"Never. But there were several people in New York I didn't know. How
did your father meet him over here?"

"He was stopping at the inn in the village, and he'd heard about the
abbey being so old, so he came over to look at it, and the first