rom the box which had
been pushed to his side. "I am sure I haven't any wish to inconvenience
you."

"I will be quite frank," Mr. Fentolin declared. "I do not dispute your
right for a moment. On the other hand, my few hours daily down there
have become a habit with me. I do not wish to give them up. Stay here
with us, Mr. Hamel. You will be doing us a great kindness. My nephew and
niece have too little congenial society. Make up your mind to give us a
fortnight of your time, and I can assure you that we will do our best to
make yours a pleasant stay."

Hamel was a little taken aback.

"Mr. Fentolin," he said, "I couldn't think of accepting your hospitality
to such an extent. My idea in coming here was simply to fulfil an old
promise to my father and to rough it at the Tower for a week or so, and
when that was over, I don't suppose I should ever be likely to come back
again. You had better let me carry out that plan, and afterwards the
place shall be entirely at your disposal."

"You don't quite understand," Mr. Fentolin persisted, a little
irritably. "I sit there every morning. I want, for instance, to be there
to-morrow morning, and the next morning, and the morning afterwards, to
finish a little seascape I have commenced. Nowhere else will do. Call it
a whim or what you will I have begun the picture, and I want to finish
it."

"Well, you can sit there all right," Hamel assured him. "I shall be out
playing golf or fishing. I shall do nothing but sleep there."

"And very uncomfortable you will be," Mr. Fentolin pointed out. "You
have no servant, I understand, and there is no one in the village fit to
look after you. Think of my thirty-nine empty rooms, my books here, my
gardens, my motor-cars, my young people, entirely at your service. You
can have a suite to yourself. You can disappear when you like. To all
effects and purposes you will be the master of St. David's Hall. Be
reasonable. Don't you think, now, that you can spend a fortnight more
pleasantly under such circumstances than by playing the misanthrope down
at the Tower?"

"Please don't think," Hamel begged, "that I don't appreciate your
hospitality. I should feel uncomfortable, however, if I paid you a visit
of the length you have suggested. Come, I don't see," he added, "why my
occupation of the Tower should interfere with you. I should be away from
it by about nine or ten o'clock every morning. I should probably only
sleep there. Can't you accept the