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I gathered that he was a member of the Wine Committee of the club. I said, "It must be rather interesting to run a business like that."

"Oh, certainly," he said with relish. "Good wine is a most interesting study--most interesting, I can assure you."

We were practically the only people in the long, tall room. We spoke quietly as we lay relaxed beside each other in our chairs, with long pauses between sentences. When you are tired there is pleasure in a conversation taken in sips, like old brandy.

I said, "I used to go to Exeter a good deal when I was a boy."

The old man said, "I know Exeter very well indeed. I lived there for forty years."

"My uncle had a house at Starcross." And I told him the name.

He smiled. "I used to act for him. We were great friends. But that's a long time ago now."

"Act for him?"

"My firm used to act for him. I was a partner in a firm of solicitors, Fulljames and Howard." And then, reminiscent, he told me a good deal about my uncle and about the family, about his horses and about his tenants. The talk became more and more a monologue; a word or two from me slipped in now and then kept him going. In his quiet voice he built up for me a picture of the days that now are gone forever, the days that I remember as a boy.