Dick broke the silence at last, saying: "Guest, forgive us for a little after-dinner dulness.

What would you like to do?
Shall we have out Greylocks and trot back to Hammersmith?
or will you come with us and hear some Welsh folk sing in a hall close by here?
or would you like presently to come with me into the City and see some really fine building?
or--what shall it be ?" "Well," said I, "as I am a stranger, I must let you choose for me." In point of fact, I did not by any means want to be 'amused' just then; and also I rather felt as if the old man, with his knowledge of past times, and even a kind of inverted sympathy for them caused by his active hatred of them, was as it were a blanket for me against the cold of this very new world, where I was, so to say, stripped bare of every habitual thought and way of acting; and I did not want to leave him too soon.

He came to my rescue at once, and said-- "Wait a bit, Dick; there is someone else to be consulted besides you and the guest here, and that is I.

I am not going to lose the pleasure of his company just now, especially as I know he has something else to ask me.

So go to your Welshmen, by all means; but first of all bring us another bottle of wine to this nook, and then be off as soon as you like; and come again and fetch our friend to go westward, but not too soon." Dick nodded smilingly, and the old man and I were soon alone in the great hall, the afternoon sun gleaming on the red wine in our tall quaint-shaped glasses.