“No, no; Owen has a little, and he must not touch a halfpenny that he has not earned—it’s in the bond; and he will have nothing to spend money on down there. I don’t believe there’s a billiard-table or a pack of cards in the place.”
“The typical hamlet, eh? Half a dozen cottages, a pump, and an idiot—poor devil!”
“Owen or the idiot?”
“Both. All the same, Leila, I feel sure that, now you’ve taken Owen in hand, he will come out on top.”
Wynyard fell in with everything, without question or argument, and cheerfully accepted his sister’s arrangements, with the exception of the ties. He drew the line at an orange satin with green spots, or even a blue with scarlet horse-shoes.
No, he declared, nothing would induce him to be seen in them; he was always a quiet dresser. He could wear a muffler, hold his tongue, or even drop his h’s if necessary; but he barred making an object of himself, and suggested that she should offer the discarded ties as a birthday present to Payne.
“He’d give notice. Payne, in his unprofessional kit, looks like a chief justice. Well, I won’t insist on the ties, but you must promise to be very countrified and dense. You know you can take off any one’s way of talking in the most remarkable way, and do Uncle Richard to the life!”
“One of my rare accomplishments; and as to being dense, why, it’s my normal condition.”
“Oh yes, you may joke! But I do hope you won’t let the cat out of the bag, Owen, or allow any one to suspect that ‘things are not what they seem!’ I wonder how you will manage in the kitchen and stables, and if you will be unmasked?”
“Well, I promise to do my best to pick up the local manners and patois, and, my dear Leila, you appear to forget that for the last year I’ve lived among a very mixed lot, and got on all right.”