"I was a fool to come," he kept saying to himself, while he was being politely, and now and then urgently, requested to take note of and to admire this and that feature of his new house. In truth he could take very little interest in the house, for it had come over him, with sudden but irresistible certainty, that he would never be able to live in it. He could not say so, of course--not just now, and not without a much better parade of reasons than he could manage to put into line impromptu. But there the certainty was--full-blown in his mind. Unless he could away with his convictions and his obstinacy, unless he could undertake and succeed in his quest, it would be impossible for him to live in the house here on the hill, with Winnie hardly a stone's throw away at the cottage on the road to Nether End. The idea was preposterous. Yet he had to go on looking at the house and admiring it. The Aikenheads demanded nothing short of enthusiasm. About a house he could never live in! Poor Dick Dennehy did his best to pump it up, but the trials inherent in his position were terribly aggravated by this incidental addition of the house. Cyril Maxon and Bertie Merriam, in their kindred struggles with loyalties and convictions, had at least been spared this irritating feature. Why, there, actually visible from his study windows, were the chimneys of Winnie's cottage! Tora triumphantly pointed them out to him. Dick Dennehy had the gift--the genius--of his race; he saw the fun of his own sufferings. As he surveyed the tops of Winnie's chimneys--with Winnie at his elbow, discreetly awaiting his opinion as to whether their presence enhanced the beauty of the landscape--his face wore a look of rueful amusement, instead of the simple admiration which the outlook from his study ought to have inspired in him. At the moment Tora and Stephen were having an animated wrangle in the passage outside, relative to the merits of a dustbin, sent on approval. "I hope I don't intrude?" said Winnie, waving her hand towards her chimney-pots. "I'll be reminded of you, if I'm ever in danger of forgetting." "We could almost start a system of communication--flag-wagging, or even wireless. Anything except thought-transference! I couldn't risk that with you--though you could with me quite safely." "Ah, you're always teasing me, Winnie." "You've not been nearly enthusiastic enough about the house, you know. Make an effort." "I'll be trying to say a few words on it after dinner. Will you be at dinner?" "I shall. Tora has asked me, to entertain you." "You can do that--and more when you've the mind to it." "I must warn you at once that I take most of my meals, except breakfast, at the Patch--in brief intervals of relaxation from the Synopsis." Dick had heard of the Synopsis. "You'll be learning a lot of nonsense," he remarked. "Oh, I don't need the Synopsis to learn that. Just talking to people is quite enough."