When he paid his last visit, Mrs. Lewknor thanked him and asked him for his account.
"I'll see," answered Mr. Trupp. "What are you going to do when you leave here?"
"Go back to London and look out for a job, I suppose."
Mr. Trupp shook his head.
"The Colonel mustn't go back to London," he said. "Why not stay here and find your job here?"
He expounded his pet plan, cherished faithfully for years, of an Open-Air Hostel for his tuberculous patients.
"There's a site available in Coombe-in-the-Cliff," he said, "just at the back. Build a Home. I'll fill it for you. You'll make a lot of money."
Mrs. Lewknor was thrilled at the project. It was at least a great adventure; and, coming of the lion-hearted race that conquered Canaan, she had no fears.
The Colonel, it is true, was more tempered in his enthusiasm, but then, as he was fond of saying,
"I haven't the courage of a louse. No man has."