h to be done that give him plenty of chance
to develop what's in him--if there happens to be anything. I used
to envy the great soldiers, who went about to the ends of the earth,
conquering wild tribes and founding empires, organising and civilising
where they went. But in our day an engineer can find big jobs too, once
he gets out in the world--draining thousands of square miles of swamp,
or regulating the Nile, or linking two oceans together. That's the sort
of thing I'm going to take a hand in some day. As soon as I've finished
here, I'm off. And we'll leave it to the engineers to come, say in a
couple of hundred years or so, to start in arranging tourist routes
between the stars. Do you mind my smoking?"

"No, please do," said Peer. "But I'm sorry I haven't--"

"I have--thanks all the same." Ferdinand took out his cigar-case, and
when Peer had declined the offered cigar, lit one himself.

"Look here," he said, "won't you come out and have dinner with me
somewhere?"

Peer started at his visitor. What did all this mean?

"I'm a regular Spartan, as a rule, but they've just finished dividing up
my father's estate, so I'm in funds for the moment, and why shouldn't
we have a little dinner to celebrate? If you want to change, I can wait
outside--but come just as you are, of course, if you prefer."

Peer was more and more perplexed. Was there something behind all this?
Or was the fellow simply an astonishingly good sort? Giving it up at
last, he changed his collar and put on his best suit and went.

For the first time in his life he found himself in a first-class
restaurant, with small tables covered with snow-white tablecloths,
flowers in vases, napkins folded sugar-loaf shape, cut-glass bowls, and
coloured wine-glasses. Ferdinand seemed thoroughly at home, and treated
his companion with a friendly politeness. And during the meal he managed
to make the talk turn most of the time on Peer's childhood and early
days.

When they had come to the coffee and cigars, Ferdinand leaned across the
table towards him, and said: "Look here, don't you think we two ought to
say thee and thou* to each other?"

* "Tutoyer," the mode of address of intimate friendship or
relationship.

"Oh, yes!" said Peer, really touched now.

"We're both Holms, you know."

"Yes. So we are."

"And, after all, who knows that there mayn't be some sort of connection?
Come, now, don't look like that! I only want you to look on me as