nd, beyond the sense that an
architect and an archaeologist begin with the same series of
letters. The world must remain in a reverent doubt as to whether he
would, on the same principles, have presented a diplomatist to a
dipsomaniac or a ratiocinator to a rat catcher. He was a big, fair,
bull-necked young man, abounding in outward gestures, unconsciously
flapping his gloves and flourishing his stick.

"You two ought to have something to talk about," he said,
cheerfully. "Old buildings and all that sort of thing; this is
rather an old building, by the way, though I say it who shouldn't. I
must ask you to excuse me a moment; I've got to go and see about the
cards for this Christmas romp my sister's arranging. We hope to see
you all there, of course. Juliet wants it to be a fancy-dress
affair--abbots and crusaders and all that. My ancestors, I suppose,
after all."

"I trust the abbot was not an ancestor," said the archaeological
gentleman, with a smile.

"Only a sort of great-uncle, I imagine," answered the other,
laughing; then his rather rambling eye rolled round the ordered
landscape in front of the house; an artificial sheet of water
ornamented with an antiquated nymph in the center and surrounded by
a park of tall trees now gray and black and frosty, for it was in
the depth of a severe winter.

"It's getting jolly cold," his lordship continued. "My sister hopes
we shall have some skating as well as dancing."

"If the crusaders come in full armor," said the other, "you must be
careful not to drown your ancestors."

"Oh, there's no fear of that," answered Bulmer; "this precious lake
of ours is not two feet deep anywhere." And with one of his
flourishing gestures he stuck his stick into the water to
demonstrate its shallowness. They could see the short end bent in
the water, so that he seemed for a moment to lean his large weight
on a breaking staff.

"The worst you can expect is to see an abbot sit down rather
suddenly," he added, turning away. "Well, au revoir; I'll let you
know about it later."

The archaeologist and the architect were left on the great stone
steps smiling at each other; but whatever their common interests,
they presented a considerable personal contrast, and the fanciful
might even have found some contradiction in each considered
individually. The former, a Mr. James Haddow, came from a drowsy den
in the Inns of Court, full of leather and parchment, for the law was
his profession and h