Wolfenden also drove a long ball, but with a little slice. He had to play the odd, and caught the top of the bunker. The hole fell to Mr. Sabin in four. They strolled off towards the second teeing ground. "Are you staying down here for long?" Mr. Sabin asked. Wolfenden hesitated. "I am not sure," he said. "I am rather oddly situated at home. At any rate I shall probably be here as long as you." "I am not sure about that," Mr. Sabin said. "I think that I am going to like these links, and if so I shall not hurry away. Forgive me if I am inquisitive, but your reference to home affairs is, I presume, in connection with your father's health. I was very sorry to hear that he is looked upon now as a confirmed invalid." Wolfenden assented gravely. He did not wish to talk about his father to Mr. Sabin. On the other hand, Mr. Sabin was politely persistent. "He does not, I presume, receive visitors," he said, as they left the tee after the third drive. "Never," Wolfenden answered decisively. "He suffers a good deal in various ways, and apart from that he is very much absorbed in the collection of some statistics connected with a hobby of his. He does not see even his oldest friends." Mr. Sabin was obviously interested. "Many years ago," he said, "I met your father at Alexandria. He was then in command of the _Victoria_. He would perhaps scarcely recollect me now, but at the time he made me promise to visit him if ever I was in England. It must be--yes, it surely must be nearly fifteen years ago." "I am afraid," Wolfenden remarked, watching the flight of his ball after a successful brassy shot, "that he would have forgotten all about it by now. His memory has suffered a good deal." Mr. Sabin addressed his own ball, and from a bad lie sent it flying a hundred and fifty yards with a peculiar, jerking shot which Wolfenden watched with envy. "You must have a wonderful eye," he remarked, "to hit a ball with a full swing lying like that. Nine men out of ten would have taken an iron." Mr. Sabin shrugged his shoulders. He did not wish to talk golf. "I was about to remark," he said, "that your father had then the reputation of, and impressed me as being, the best informed man with regard to English naval affairs with whom I ever conversed." "He was considered an authority, I believe," Wolfenden admitted. "What I particularly admired about him," Mr. Sabin continued, "was the absence of that cocksureness which sometimes, I am afraid, almost blinds the judgment of your great naval officers. I have heard him even discuss the possibility of an invasion of England with the utmost gravity. He admitted that it was far from improbable." "My father's views," Wolfenden said, "have always been pessimistic as regards the actual strength of our navy and coast defences. I believe he used to make himself a great nuisance at the Admiralty." "He has ceased now, I suppose," Mr. Sabin remarked, "to take much interest in the matter?"