These men were often changed, and his chance, therefore, of meeting a stranger was all the more likely.
As he approached the low sill of the door which was level with the ground, and which now stood wide open, he caught the glow of a fire and could make out the figure of a man seated at a desk bending over a mass of papers.

The man pushed back a green shade which had protected his eyes from the glare of a lamp and peered out at him.
It was his father! The discovery was so unexpected and had come with such suddenness--it was rarely in these later days that the colonel was to be found here in the afternoon: he was either riding or receiving visitors--that Harry's first thought was to shrink back out of sight, or, if discovered, to make some excuse for his intrusion and retire.

Then his mind changed and he stepped boldly in.

This was what he had come for and this was what he would face.
"I have some China silks to sell," he said in his natural tone of voice, turning his head so that while his goods were in sight his face would be in shadow.
"Silks! I don't want any silks! Who allowed you to pass in here?
Alec!" He pushed back his chair and moved to the door.

"Alec! Where the devil is Alec! He's always where I don't want him!" "I saw no one to ask, sir," Harry replied mechanically.