At the present moment, however, it was not so much his appearance as his actions that arrested the Walk’s attention. He had come in dreamily as usual with his lack-lustre eyes seeing nothing in spite of their great silver-rimmed spectacles. Suddenly his attention was attracted by something lying at his feet. He stopped, picked it up laboriously, and examined it minutely, pushing his spectacles over his forehead for the purpose. "Bless the man!" cried Mrs. Poskett. "He ’s picked up the Eyesore’s filthy pipe!" And now he was exhibiting all the symptoms of frantic joy. Utterly unconscious of the people watching him, he indulged in delighted chuckles, and his withered old legs quite independently of their master’s volition executed a sort of grotesque dance. He looked very much like a crane that had caught a fish. "But why the step-dance?" exclaimed Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn, with a laugh. Sir Peter hailed him. "Doctor Sternroyd, ahoy!" The Doctor looked from one to the other in genuine amazement. It was evident his mind had been wandering in some remote world. "Dear me! Tut, tut!" he stammered. "I had not observed you!" Then, with a radiant face, "Ah, my friends, congratulate me!" All gathered round him, and the Admiral asked, "What about, Doctor?" "This," said the reverend gentleman, holding up the trophy. "This. A beautiful specimen of an early Elizabethan tobacco-pipe!" It was with the greatest difficulty the Admiral restrained a great burst of laughter from the onlookers. Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn got as far as "That, sir? Why, that’s—" when a tremendous dig from the Admiral’s elbow deprived him of his wind, and sent him backward clucking like an infuriated turkey-cock. "I do not wonder at your surprise," continued the antiquary. "Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, they are sometimes found in the alluvial deposit of the Thames; but even my friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose specialty they are, does not possess so perfect a specimen in his entire collection." Again the Admiral was obliged to exercise all his authority in order to suppress unseemly mirth or explanations. Doctor Sternroyd went on with the tone of regret assumed by a man of learning in the presence of an ignorant and unappreciative audience. "Ah, you don’t understand the value of these things. Out of this fragment it is possible to reconstruct an entire epoch. I see Sir Walter Raleigh’s fleet bringing home the fragrant weed from the distant plantations; I see him enjoying its vapours in his pleasaunce at Sherborne; I see Drake solacing himself with it on board the Golden Hind. Yes, yes, I shall read a paper on it.—Ah! if only my dear wife, my beloved Araminta, were here now!" With mingled melancholy and triumph he drifted across the lawn and into his house—the last house of the crescent. "Amazing!" said Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn; "but why would n’t you let me tell him, Sir Peter?"