this his home--for the time being at least."

"Then it's some old friend of yours?" said the girl. "I know I shall
like him."

Thorpe laughed somewhat uneasily. "Well--yes--he's a kind of a friend of
mine," he said, with a note of hesitation in his voice. "I don't know,
though, that you'll think much of him. He aint what you'd call a ladies'
man."

He laughed again at some thought the words conjured up. "He's a curious,
simple old party, who'd just like a comfortable corner somewhere by
himself, and wouldn't expect to be talked to or entertained at all.
If he does come, he'll keep to himself pretty well. He wouldn't be
any company for you. I mean,--for you or Alfred either. I think he's
a Canadian or West Indian,--British subject, at all events,--but he's
lived all his life in the West, and he wouldn't know what to do in
a drawing-room, or that sort of thing. You'd better just not pay any
attention to him. Pass the time of day, of course, but that's all."

Julia's alert, small-featured face expressed some vague disappointment
at what she heard, but her words were cheerful enough. "Oh of
course--whatever he likes best," she said. "I will tell Potter to make
everything ready. I suppose there's no chance of his being here in time
for dinner?"

Thorpe shook his head, and then lifted his brows over some new
perplexity. "I guess he'd want to eat his meals out, anyway," he said,
after some thought. "I don't seem to remember much about him in
that respect--of course, everything was so different in camp out in
Mexico--but I daresay he wouldn't be much of an ornament at the table.
However, that'll be all right. He's as easy to manage as a rabbit. If I
told him to eat on the roof, he'd do it without a murmur. You see it's
this way, Julia: he's a scientific man--a kind of geologist, and mining
expert and rubber expert--and chemical expert and all sort of things. I
suppose he must have gone through college--very likely he'll turn out to
have better manners than I was giving him credit for. I've only seen him
in the rough, so to speak. We weren't at all intimate then,--but we had
dealings together, and there are certain important reasons why I should
keep close in touch with him while he's here in London. But I'll try and
do that without letting you be bothered." "What an idea!" cried Julia.
"As if that wasn't what we had the house for--to see the people you want
to see."

Her uncle smiled rather ruefully, and looked in a rat