gs, and he could be wildly extravagant.
Aymer never questioned him. He sometimes laughed at him when he had
wasted a whole week's money on some childish folly, and told him he
was a silly baby, which Christopher did not like. However, he found he
had to buy his own experiences, and he soon learnt that no folly
however childish annoyed "Caesar" so much as accumulated wealth for no
particular object but a possible future need.

Christopher had christened Aymer "Caesar" shortly after his
introduction to the literary remains of one, Julius, from some
fanciful resemblance, and the name stuck and solved a difficulty.

In the same manner he bestowed the distinctive title of St. Michael on
Mr. Aston, from his likeness to a famous picture of that great saint
in a stained glass window he had seen, and it also was generally
adopted.

No one made any further attempt to explain his introduction into the
family, or the general history of that family. He was just "grafted
in," and left to discover what he could for himself, and he certainly
gathered some fragmentary disconnected facts together.

"What is a Secletary?" demanded Christopher one day from the
hearth-rug, where he lay turning over old volumes of the _Illustrated
London News_.

"A Secretary, I suppose you mean. A Secretary is a man who writes
letters for someone else."

"Who does St. Michael write letters for?"

"He used to write letters for the Queen, or rather on the Queen's
business. What book have you got there?"

Christopher explained.

"There is a picture of him. Only he hasn't got grey hair: and
underneath Perma n-e-n-t, Permanent Undersecretary of State for
Foreign Affairs. What does it mean, Caesar?"

Caesar, otherwise Aymer, considered a moment.

"Permanent means lasting, going on. You ought to know that,
Christopher."

"But he isn't going on."

"He could have done so."

"Why didn't he? Didn't he like it?"

"Yes, very much. He was trained for that kind of thing."

"Did he get tired of writing letters, then?"

"No."

Aymer was apt to become monosyllabic when a certain train of thought
was forced on him. Also a short deep line of frown appeared under the
white scar: but Christopher had not yet learnt to pay full heed to
these signs: also he had a predilection for getting at the root of any
matter he had once begun to investigate, so he began again:

"Why didn't he go on being permanent, then?"

"He thought he had something else he ought t