(continued)

For a time I was puzzled to think what had brought him.  He made indifferent conversation in the most formal way, then abruptly he came to business.  He wanted to buy me out of my bungalow.

"You see," he said, "I don't blame you in the least, but you've destroyed a habit, and it disorganises my day.  I've walked past here for years—years.  No doubt I've hummed . . .  You've made all that impossible!"

I suggested he might try some other direction.

"No.  There is no other direction.  This is the only one.  I've inquired.  And now—every afternoon at four—I come to a dead wall."

"But, my dear sir, if the thing is so important to you—"

"It's vital.  You see, I'm—I'm an investigator—I am engaged in a scientific research.  I live—" he paused and seemed to think.  "Just over there," he said, and pointed suddenly dangerously near my eye.  "The house with white chimneys you see just over the trees.  And my circumstances are abnormal—abnormal.  I am on the point of completing one of the most important—demonstrations—I can assure you one of the most important demonstrations that have ever been made.  It requires constant thought, constant mental ease and activity.  And the afternoon was my brightest time!—effervescing with new ideas—new points of view."

"But why not come by still?"

"It would be all different.  I should be self-conscious.  I should think of you at your play—watching me irritated—instead of thinking of my work.  No!  I must have the bungalow."

I meditated.  Naturally, I wanted to think the matter over thoroughly before anything decisive was said.  I was generally ready enough for business in those days, and selling always attracted me;  but in the first place it was not my bungalow, and even if I sold it to him at a good price I might get inconvenienced in the delivery of goods if the current owner got wind of the transaction, and in the second I was, well—undischarged.  It was clearly a business that required delicate handling.  Moreover, the possibility of his being in pursuit of some valuable invention also interested me.  It occurred to me that I would like to know more of this research, not with any dishonest intention, but simply with an idea that to know what it was would be a relief from play-writing.  I threw out feelers.

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