Colin laughed, and, picking up his hat from the side table where he had originally placed it, followed the still smiling Mr. Medwin out into the hall and along the covered passageway.
They exchanged no remark until the iron gate had closed behind them, when, turning down the hill, his new acquaintance addressed him with an air of good-natured amusement.
"A queer character, our old friend," he observed. "I always say he might have stepped bodily out of one of Dickens's books." He paused, and eyed Colin again with that sharp, penetrating glance of his. "Have you known him long?" he added.
"Not very," said Colin. "About an hour, to be exact."
Mr. Medwin raised his eyebrows.
"Really!" he exclaimed. "Then I suppose your arrangement to come and live at the Red Lodge was only decided this afternoon?"
Colin nodded.
"I wonder what put the idea into his head," continued the lawyer. "It's almost the last thing one would have expected from such a confirmed old hermit."
For a moment Colin hesitated. The question was natural enough, but since the Professor had chosen to remain silent he thought it better to keep his own counsel.
"There is a lot of hard work in connection with research," he replied. "When a man gets to his age he's bound to require a certain amount of help."