"Where?" "In the billiard-room, my lord," the man repeated. "He was inquiring for you only a moment ago." Wolfenden turned sharp to the left and entered the billiard-room. His father was standing there with his coat off and a cue in his hand. Directly he turned round Wolfenden was aware of a peculiar change in his face and expression. The hard lines had vanished, every trace of anxiety seemed to have left him. His eyes were soft and as clear as a child's. He turned to Wolfenden with a bland smile, and immediately began to chalk his cue. "Come and play me a game, Wolf," he cried out cheerfully. "You'll have to give me a few, I'm so out of practice. We'll make it a hundred, and you shall give me twenty. Which will you have, spot, or plain?" Wolfenden gulped down his amazement with an effort. "I'll take plain," he said. "It's a long time, isn't it, since we played?" His father faced him for a minute and seemed perplexed. "Not so very long, surely. Wasn't it yesterday, or the day before?" Wolfenden wondered for a moment whether that blow had affected his brain. It was years since he had seen the billiard-room at Deringham Hall opened. "I don't exactly remember," he faltered. "Perhaps I was mistaken. Time goes so quickly." "I wonder," the Admiral said, making a cannon and stepping briskly round the table, "how it goes at all with you young men who do nothing. Great mistake to have no profession, Wolf! I wish I could make you see it." "I quite agree with you," Wolfenden said. "You must not look upon me as quite an idler, though. I am a full-fledged barrister, you know, although I do not practise, and I have serious thoughts of Parliament." The Admiral shook his head. "Poor career, my boy, poor career for a gentleman's son. Take my advice and keep out of Parliament. I am going to pot the red. I don't like the red ball, Wolf! It keeps looking at me like--like that man! Ah!" He flung his cue with a rattle upon the floor of inlaid wood, and started back. "Look, Wolf!" he cried. "He's grinning at me! Come here, boy! Tell me the truth! Have I been tricked? He told me that he was Mr. C. and I gave him everything! Look at his face how it changes! He isn't like C. now! He is like--who is it he is like? C.'s face is not so pale as that, and he does not limp. I seem to remember him too! Can't you help me? Can't you see him, boy?" He had been moving backwards slowly. He was leaning now against the wall, his face blanched and perfectly bloodless, his eyes wild and his pupils dilated. Wolfenden laid his cue down and came over to his side. "No, I can't see him, father," he said gently. "I think it must be fancy; you have been working too hard."