Before they parted, however, Katherine turned by the door.
"Are you coming to the armoury to hear Dick's lecture?"
"Of course," said Austin gaily. "The dear old chap loves an audience."
CHAPTER IV
THE FAMOUS DUELLING PISTOLS
Dick's great-grandfather (Wild Dick Ware, as he used to be called by the
country-side), besides other enormities of indiscretion, committed an
architectural crime. Having begun to form the collection of arms which
was Dick's pride and hobby, he felt the need of a fencing gallery where
they could be displayed to advantage. None of the rooms in the house
were suitable. Building a new wing would cost too much. So, like a good
old English gentleman, accustomed to get what he wanted, he ruthlessly
cut off a slice of the nobly proportioned morning-room, containing a
beautifully-mullioned casement at the side, knocked a French window
through one end, so that he could wander in and out from the terrace,
knocked a door through the other so that it opened on a corner of the
hall, forgot all about the fireplace, and left his descendants to make
the best of things.
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