the house that was....

An apartment was advertised for sale. We liked the place. We decided to meet the owner and chat with him and check out if we could afford it. He happened to be a government officer. We decided that we would not speak about my father who also was in the same profession.

In the course of conversation we realised that we could not afford the place, however he was a nice gentleman and generally chatting about various issues when he suddenly turned to me and asked me my background and since he was persistent, I did tell him about my father. We found out that he lived in the same street as my dad had after retirement. And as we got up to leave he came and saw us off at the gate, which is rather rare in the present cadre of government officers. I felt that gesture was out of respect for my father. We came back feeling good even though the dream of moving into the apartment faded away.