arge-jawed man, with small but good and steady eyes, and
strong, spare figure.

"Oh, Mr. Shelton!" he said, "I wondered if you could tell me what tips
I ought to give the servants here; after ten years away I 've forgotten
all about that sort of thing."

Shelton sat down beside him; unconsciously assuming, too, a cross-legged
attitude, which caused him much discomfort.

"I was listening," said his new acquaintance, "to the little chap
learning his French. I've forgotten mine. One feels a hopeless duffer
knowing no, languages."

"I suppose you speak Arabic?" said Shelton.

"Oh, Arabic, and a dialect or two; they don't count. That tutor has a
curious face."

"You think so?" said Shelton, interested. "He's had a curious life."

The traveller spread his hands, palms downwards, on the grass and looked
at Shelton with, a smile.

"I should say he was a rolling stone," he said. "It 's odd, I' ve seen
white men in Central Africa with a good deal of his look about them.

"Your diagnosis is a good one," answered Shelton.

"I 'm always sorry for those fellows. There's generally some good in
them. They are their own enemies. A bad business to be unable to take
pride in anything one does!" And there was a look of pity on his face.

"That's exactly it," said Shelton. "I 've often tried to put it into
words. Is it incurable?"

"I think so."

"Can you tell me why?"

Whyddon pondered.

"I rather think," he said at last, "it must be because they have too
strong a faculty of criticism. You can't teach a man to be proud of his
own work; that lies in his blood "; folding his arms across his breast,
he heaved a sigh. Under the dark foliage, his eyes on the sunlight, he
was the type of all those Englishmen who keep their spirits bright
and wear their bodies out in the dark places of hard work. "You can't
think," he said, showing his teeth in a smile, "how delightful it is to
be at home! You learn to love the old country when you're away from it."

Shelton often thought, afterwards; of this diagnosis of the vagabond,
for he was always stumbling on instances of that power of subtle
criticism which was the young foreigner's prime claim to be "a most
awfully interesting" and perhaps a rather shocking person.

An old school-fellow of Shelton's and his wife were staying in the
house, who offered to the eye the picture of a perfect domesticity.
Passionless and smiling, it was impossible to imagine they could ever
have a differen