"Neatly put," commended Tuppy.
"You get this house free; you get the money—cash down; you get what you haven't got now—unlimited credit."
"Pardon, pardon," corrected Tuppy carefully, "my credit is exceptionally good, if the tradesmen only knew it; it's the rotten conservatism of English business methods that is paralysin' my budget, an' the socialistic tendencies of the tradin' classes that is interferin' with my economic adjustments. Tanny, old sparrow, it's no go."
He shook his head.
"No shootin' except cats; no fishin' except with worms—I particularly loath worms and spiders—no society."
"There is the Duke."
Tuppy had forgotten the Duke, and Hal's sarcasm was effective. "Duke?" Tuppy frowned. "The Duke—of course."
"Now what on earth is the Duke doin' there?" he burst forth in a tone of extreme annoyance, "an' what duke is it?"
"I've told you a dozen times," said the exasperated Hal, "he's an obscure foreign duke—"
"Name?"