Punctually at tea-time Melrose appeared.
And there was no denying that in general he proved himself an agreeable
companion--a surprisingly agreeable companion. He would come slouching
in, wearing the shabbiest clothes, and a black skullcap on his flowing
gray hair; looking one moment like the traditional doctor of the Italian
puppet-play, gaunt, long-fingered, long-featured, his thin, pallid face a
study in gray amid its black surroundings; and the next, playing the man
of family and cosmopolitan travel, that he actually was. Faversham indeed
began before long to find a curious attraction in his society. There was
flattery, moreover, in the fact that nobody else in living memory had
Melrose ever been known to pay anything like the attention he was now
daily devoting to his invalid guest. The few inmates and visitors of the
Tower, permanent and temporary, became gradually aware of it. They were
astonished, but none the less certain that Melrose had only modified his
attitude for some selfish reason of his own which would appear in due
time.
The curious fact, however, emerged, after a while, that between the two
men, so diverse in age, history, and circumstance, there was a surprising
amount in common. Faversham, in spite of his look of youth, much impaired
for the present by the results of his accident, was not so very young; he
had just passed his thirtieth birthday, and Melrose soon discovered that
he had seen a good deal both of the natural and the human worlds.
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