, viewed as a residence only, he had
certainly observed it many times before, and under varying conditions. He
knew to a nicety just how many slats were lacking from certain of the
blinds, just how the ragged edge of the great chimney showed against the
sky line, precisely where the big pillared porch needed repairing. No,
it was not in any of these aspects that he had come curiously out to view
it now. He wanted to see it with the eyes of the prospective purchasers,
Jarvis Burnside and Neil Chase. He wanted particularly to see it as Chase
saw it, that upon mention of the fact that Max had already been
interviewed by a prospective buyer, he had, in spite of his effort to
appear indifferent, really shown such eagerness to be given an option
upon the place.

Max walked slowly back toward the house, under the shadow of the row of
great trees bordering what had once been a lawn. Two figures had just
come out upon the porch; he recognized them, even at this distance, as
the Chases. At the moment, nobody else occupied the porch. Neil and
Dorothy stood for a moment under the lanterns, looking back into the
hall, then turned and descended the steps. They surveyed the house as
they did so; they backed farther away from it; they strolled round to the
west side, and viewed it from that point. Finally, as Max halted beside a
tree-trunk, watching them, they began to walk slowly down the driveway,
turning from time to time to gaze back at the house-front.

As they passed Max, catching no hint of his presence in the shadow, they
conversed in phrases which were of interest to him, and to which, since
they intimately concerned himself, he might be excused for listening.

"It's simply stunning," Dorothy was saying eagerly, as they passed. "I'd
rather have it than forty new houses. When it's restored it will have
such an air! I don't suppose they appreciate it at all, do they? Oh, do
get hold of it before anybody tells them!"

"Max says Sally is crazy to live in it. But that can't be because she
realizes its value."

"No, she's just old-fashioned child enough to like it because it's
homelike, and her uncle and grandfather lived in it, not because it's
such a swell type of the real old thing that people rave over now."

"Max isn't the sort to care for it either. But he has an eye on the cash.
I shall have to put up a fair price, all right, to get it. I'll try
bluffing first, though. He's too much of an office grind to care for
anythi