pipe from his mouth.

"You must have marvelous eyesight, my young friend," he remarked. "To
me everything seems blurred and uncertain."

"You don't understand!" said the boy impatiently. "I do not come here
to see the things that anyone can see at any hour of the day. There is
nothing satisfying in that. I come here to look down and see the
things which do not really exist. It is easy enough when one is
alone," he added, a little pointedly.

The newcomer laughed softly--there was more banter than humor in his
mirth.

"So my company displeases you," he remarked. "Do you know that I have
the right to tell you to get up, and never to pass through that gate
again?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders.

"One place is as good as another," he said.

The man smoked in silence for several moments. Then he withdrew the
pipe from his teeth and sighed gently.

"These are indeed democratic days," he said. "You do not know, my
young friend, that I am Henry Prestgate Rochester, Esquire, if you
please, High Sheriff of this county, Magistrate and Member of
Parliament, owner, by the bye, of that rock against which you are
leaning, and of most of that country below, which you can or cannot
see."

"Really!" the boy answered slowly. "My name is Bertrand Saton, and I
am staying at the Convalescent Home down there, a luxury which is
costing me exactly eight shillings a week."

"So I concluded," his companion remarked. "May I ask what your
occupation is, when in health?"

"It's of no consequence," the boy answered, a little impatiently.
"Perhaps I haven't one at all. Whatever it is, as you may imagine, it
has not brought me any great success. If you wish me to go----"

"Not at all," Rochester interrupted, with a little protesting gesture.

"I do not wish to remain here on sufferance," the boy continued. "I
understood that we were allowed to spend our time upon the hills
here."

"That is quite true, I believe," Rochester admitted. "My bailiff sees
to those things, and if it amuses you to sit here all night, you are
perfectly welcome."

"I shall probably do so."

Rochester watched him curiously for a few seconds.

"Look here," he said, "I will make a bargain with you. You shall have
the free run of all my lands for as long as you like, and in return
you shall just answer me one question."

The boy turned his head slightly.

"The question?" he asked.

"You shall tell me the things which you see down there," Rochester
dec