"I beg your pardon," said he.
"'Twas only," said I, "that you passed me here about an hour ago. You passed me twice. First time you were going out of the Park, the second time you came back. I saw you look at your watch. I imagined that you'd left some instrument at the house up West where you'd been working. You were evidently annoyed at the waste of time."
His eyes opened in some sort of amazement.
"Very quick of you to have noticed it, sir."
"Well—not very," I replied. "I sit here in the Park most mornings and amuse myself that way."
He gave me back my match-box.
"Well—that was just about it," he said. "I'd been fixing some blinds ready for the summer."
"Blinds for the summer," I echoed, "there's a sound about that."
He smiled broadly as he thought of it.
"By the way," said I, "you've lost your narcissus." He looked down quickly at his coat.