"There's another matter which I have been giving thought to, Guy. Don't you think that it is about time you took some chambers for yourself?"
Guy was more than startled by the suggestion thus sprung upon him. He had always been left such perfect freedom that there had never been the slightest temptation in the thought of possessing a domicile of his own.
"Why, Commandatore?" he asked. "I am perfectly comfortable at home here."
"You will always be at home here, I hope," replied Hora, "but at the same time there is much to be said in favour of the course I am proposing. Now listen, Guy. I will say nothing of the extra freedom which will be yours."
"I could not have more than I enjoy at present," remarked Guy.
Hora shrugged his shoulders. "Men are men," he said. "You may be having visitors who might hardly like to come here. Eh?"
Guy smiled.
"I see it is possible," continued Hora, smiling in his turn. "Then there are others whom I might not wish to meet. The men of your own years with whom you mix, with whom you must mix if you are to keep your position, will probably be often dropping in on you. I am getting of an age, Guy, when I might find their presence, I will not say distasteful, but just a little wearisome. At chambers of your own you will be much freer in that respect."
"There are my clubs," objected Guy.
Hora waved the objection aside.