You will find inside some beautiful arches, and
a sense of space which all modern houses lack. It cost me a
great deal of money, and it is inhabited, when I am in Europe,
about once a fortnight. You know the river name for it?
'Timothy's Folly!"'
"But what on earth made you build it, so long as you don't care
to live there?" Francis enquired.
Sir Timothy smiled reflectively.
"Well," he explained, "I like sometimes to entertain, and I like
to entertain, when I do, on a grand scale. In London, if I give
a party, the invitations are almost automatic. I become there a
very insignificant link in the chain of what is known as Society,
and Society practically helps itself to my entertainment, and
sees that everything is done according to rule. Down here things
are entirely different. An invitation to The Walled House is a
personal matter. Society has nothing whatever to do with my
functions here. The reception-rooms, too, are arranged according
to my own ideas. I have, as you may have heard, the finest
private gymnasium in England. The ballroom and music-room and
private theatre, too, are famous."
"And do you mean to say that you keep that huge place empty?"
Francis asked curiously.
"I have a suite of rooms there which I occasionally occupy," Sir
Timothy replied, "and there are always thirty or forty servants
and attendants of different sorts who have their quarters there.
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