ter Walkirk, I continued for a time
to treat the subject in the same desultory manner in which I had related
my experiences to my first listener; but the superior intelligence, and
I may say the superior attention, of Walkirk acted upon me as a
restraint as well as an incentive. I made my descriptions as graphic and
my statements as accurate as I could, and, stimulated by his occasional
questions and remarks, I began to discourse systematically and with a
well-considered plan. I went from country to country in the order in
which I had traveled through them, and placed my reflections on social,
political, or artistic points where they naturally belonged.

It was plain to see that Walkirk's interest and pleasure increased when
my rambling narrations resolved themselves into a series of evening
lectures upon Great Britain, the Continent, and the north coast of
Africa, and his pleasure was a decided gratification to me. If his
engagements and mine had permitted, I should have been glad to talk to
him at other times, as well as in the evening.

After a month or more of this agreeable occupation, the fact began to
impress itself upon me that I was devoting too much time to the pleasure
of being listened to. My grandmother gently complained that the time I
gave to her after dinner appeared to be growing less and less, and there
was a good deal of correspondence and other business I was in the habit
of attending to in the evening which now was neglected, or done in the
daytime, when I should have been doing other things.

I was not a man of leisure. My grandmother owned a farm about a mile
from our village, and over the management of this I exercised a
supervision. I was erecting some houses on land of my own on the
outskirts of the village, and for this reason, as well as others, it
frequently was necessary for me to go to the city on business errands.
Besides all this, social duties had a claim on me, summer and winter.

I had gradually formed the habit of talking with Walkirk on other
subjects than my travels, and one evening I mentioned to him some of the
embarrassments and annoyances to which I had been subjected during the
day, on account of the varied character of my affairs. Walkirk sat for a
minute or two, his chin in his hand, gazing steadfastly upon the carpet;
then he spoke:--

"Mr. Vanderley, what you say suggests something which I have been
thinking of saying to you. I have now finished the catalogue of prints