“Are you in the choir?”
“No.”
“May I ask you what you are then, sir?”—this was said with great deference. The man, cornered at last, thought it best to speak the truth, so he answered:
“I am what they call a ‘verger!’”
“Quite so!” said Toole gravely; “I thought you were only a servant by the insolent way you spoke of your superiors!”
The remainder of that personal conduction was made in silence.
VI
On one occasion when Toole was taking the waters at Homburg, King Edward VII., then Prince of Wales, was there. He had a breakfast party to which he had asked Toole and also Sir George Lewis and Sir Squire Bancroft. In the course of conversation his Royal Highness asked Bancroft where he was going after Homburg. The answer was that he was going to Maloya in Switzerland. Then turning to Toole he asked him:
“Are you going to Maloya also, Mr. Toole?” In reply Toole said, as he bowed and pointed to the great solicitor:
“No, sir, Ma-loya (my lawyer) is here!”