"He wanted 'Ye' instead of 'The.'"
"No!" said Ben, in horror.
"He did," said Patrick: "he actually and infernally did. Like a tea shop. He's not altogether a bad-looking man; he would have taken quite a decent degree but for the War; he has played cricket for his county; he induced me to become his partner; and yet he wanted 'Ye' instead of 'The.'"
"Can this be true?" Ben asked.
"Well, I stick to it," said Jack. "We are out to make a living and I know what people are. You might lose a few highbrows by saying 'Ye' but you'd get a bigger following generally. Still, Patrick here wouldn't give way. Well," he made an exaggerated gesture of fatalism, "we know what the reason will be if we're bankrupt, don't we, old Soul?" and he patted the waggish spaniel.
"And," said the lame one, "I haven't told you the worst. He came down one day with a design lettered by one of his architect friends,
'YE OLD BOOKE SHOPPE'
in which 'shop' had two P's and an E. I haven't fully recovered yet——"
"It would have meant great business," said Jack, defiantly. "There's a fascination about that double P and that final E that lots of people find irresistible. No matter, the die is cast. By the way," he added to Ben, "I suppose you're calling yourself something?"
"I was thinking of 'The Beck and Call,'" said Ben. "I wanted a signboard rather like yours."