The captain's cottage stood among its roses as of old; seemed only a little smaller even than on the last occasion--a little more as though it had sunk gently down, like a tired old man, and was unable to hold itself quite so erect as before. Comethup walked up the path and stood for a moment in the open doorway of the cottage, and there was the captain.
He was standing in the middle of the little room, and he looked at the young man for a long moment in silence; then, on an impulse, each took a step forward and they clasped hands. Comethup noticed that the captain, like the house, had sunk a little, that his shoulders were bowed ever so slightly, and that his hands seemed thinner. But the touch of the hand was as warm and firm as ever.
"My dear boy," he said slowly, "it's such a delight to see you! I suppose the years seem longer when one is growing old; they would have seemed longer still but for your letters. It's good of you to have remembered an old man, and to have come down to see him."
"I'd have come before, only I couldn't very well get away," said Comethup. "It's just as good to me to be back in the old place again; no other place seems really like home."
The captain gave his hands a parting squeeze and let them go. "I suppose," he said, in a more ordinary tone, "I suppose you'll be content with your old room here?"
"Of course," said Comethup, laughing. "Why not? You wouldn't have me go to the inn, would you?"
The portmanteau was brought in and the carriage dismissed. Lunch was laid in the old simple fashion by Homer, with whom Comethup warmly shook hands; and the young man chatted ceaselessly throughout the meal. There were many things about which the captain was curious--things which he had forgotten to mention in his short letters: as to the standing and apparent strength of foreign armies, and their methods of life and discipline. He nodded with supreme satisfaction on being told that some of the foreign soldiers Comethup had seen were very small and insignificant and very youthful.
"That's as it should be," replied the old man. "It's very evident that in these things the foreigner is absolutely incapable of improving himself. He may cook well, and he may know how to swing off his hat and make a bow which is much too elaborate to have anything of sincerity in it, but he can't breed fighting men; the thing is simply not to be done. I'm glad to hear you bear out the impression I have so long had concerning that matter. Now that one is--well, is not quite so strong as in more lusty years; now that one finds the years creeping on, it is easier to sleep calmly in one's bed when one knows that foreign legions--taken in the lump--are as you describe them. Oh, we must never forget, as I have before pointed out to you, my dear Comethup, that we lie remarkably near the coast. You remember all the plans we used to make, boy," he added less seriously, "when you were a little chap?"