My amusement will consist in counting
the days until you come back. We shall both do that.'
'Why not go and stay at Greifenstein as you both did before? It is more
comfortable.'
'I prefer this. There is a better view. I think I will buy the top of
the hill over there, and lay the foundation of an observatory. It will
be an occupation, and they send me so much money that I do not know
what to do with it.'
'I hope you are not going to build a house to live in,' said Greif,
suddenly. 'Remember that your home is here.'
'Thank you,' answered Rex.
The words were pleasant to him, for in the last month he had begun to
feel an attachment for Sigmundskron which he had never felt for any
place before. The mere idea of leaving it was painful to him, and if he
must be parted for a time from Greif and Hilda--he coupled their names
in his thoughts, and rather obstinately, too--he knew that the time
would pass more quickly in the old castle than anywhere else. At forty
years of age, the idea of beginning again the wandering life he had
led so long, rambling from one country and capital to another, now
spending a year at a University and then six months in Paris, or a
winter in St. Petersburg, never settled, never at home, though at home
everywhere--the mere thought was painfully repugnant. To live with
Greif and Hilda in their ancient home, to build at last the noble
observatory of which he had often idly dreamed, and to spend the best
years of life that remained to him in peaceful study among those he
loved, was a prospect infinitely attracting, and apparently most easy
of realisation.
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