"Thank you," said Pollyooly.
"I always have heard that the grand duke is a very decent sort, as well as being astute; and this proves it," he said.
"But it does seem such a lot for the little I've done. I could have done a lot more, if I'd known," said Pollyooly in a tone of discomfort.
"Not a bit of it," said the Honourable John Ruffin in a confident tone. "As what you've done goes, eleven golden sovereigns isn't a penny too much for it. I haven't observed the treatment; but I have no doubt that you're making another boy of Prince Adalbert."
"Well, he does look better and he does get about quicker than he did," said Pollyooly slowly, weighing her words.
"Well, that's a good deal," said the Honourable John Ruffin in an encouraging tone.
"And he is a little brighter too, though he does only grunt; and of course he behaves better; he doesn't knock the other children about like he used to."
"Well, there you are," said the Honourable John Ruffin, in the tone of one completely satisfied.
"Oh, but he is slow!" Pollyooly protested. "It would take weeks and weeks to really do anything with him—weeks and weeks."
"But what can you expect?" said the Honourable John Ruffin amiably. "The red Deepings were notable people, ruling a county, and hacking and hewing the best people in four counties round, when the ancestors of the prince were swineherds in a Prussian forest. And those ancestors stayed in that forest for five hundred years after that. Prince Adalbert doesn't throw back more than a hundred and fifty years. If a red Deeping produced an Adalbert, he would throw back six hundred and fifty years; and it isn't done."