"It is a good thing, on the whole," he said, adding slowly.
"Don't drive the boy; let him forget."
He drove away, and I looked after him in some wonderment, for his words seemed enigmatical.
As I walked back to my garden I could hear Tommy whistling in his bedroom. There was a light in the room, and I could see him, half undressed, fondling one of his white rats. I remembered how he had insisted on their company and smiled.
"Sir."
From the shadow of the hedge a voice addressed me.
"Sir."
"Hullo," I said. Then, as I peered through the gloom, I saw a young woman standing before me, and, even in the dusk, I could read the eagerness in her eyes.
Her face was familiar.
"Surely I know you?" I asked.