During these times of exile Tinker was, for
the most part, his only companion, save for brief visits from Lord
Crosland; and since Sir Tancred made a point of talking to him as his
equal in age and experience, he gained from these times of close
intimacy a yet wider knowledge of the world. These retirements never
lasted long, not long enough indeed for Tinker, who was always happy
enough in the country. Sir Tancred after a while grew impatient for
the distractions of which he had acquired so deep-rooted a habit.
Moreover, in the country, out of a well-filled country house or
shooting-box, he might at any time fall into the old, sorrowful
brooding on his lost happiness.
The most uncommon part of Tinker's education was the careful
cultivation of his faculty of observation. Sir Tancred himself had a
natural gift of understanding his fellow-creatures, which, along with
his finer brain, little by little placed him in the noble but
unenviable position of being the first person to whom his friends flew
to be extricated from their scrapes. He had found that his gift stood
him in such good stead in his varying fortunes that he spared no pains
to equip Tinker with the faculty even more finely developed.
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