“You go in a great deal for theatricals, don’t you?” she said, thinking, from what she had heard, that this was a safe shot.
But he shook his head with a smile, which had in it not more than the minimum of the contempt the average Englishman always shows for any form of recreation in which he is not proficient.
“No, I don’t, but my brothers and sisters do. Amy, the second one, acts awfully well. They did the Vicar of Wakefield last year for the Blind School, and her Olivia was ever so much better than Ellen Terry’s. Everybody said so. She’d make her fortune on the stage, that girl would. Of course, my father would never let her go on; but lots of people would say it’s a pity.”
After this, as his interest in the stage evidently languished, Chris tried Art. Did he sketch? No, young Mr. Browne didn’t sketch himself, but his brother Algernon did; awfully well, too, so that everybody said it was simply disgraceful laziness, and nothing else, which kept him from exhibiting at the Academy. And this was the limit of young Mr. Browne’s interest in Art.
“No doubt, living down here so close to the sea, you take more interest in yachting and boating than anything else?”
“Well, I can’t say I’m much of a sailor myself,” answered Mr. Browne, modestly. “But Guy—that’s my eldest brother—can sail a yacht better than any of those men who get their living by it. My father keeps a little yacht, and I assure you that when they’re out in dirty weather the captain gives the boat over to Guy.”
“Indeed!” said Chris, with as little incredulity as possible. And at last, tired of fishing about in these unpromising waters, she came straight to the point with, “And what is your favourite recreation? Or are you too studious to have one?”
“Oh, no! Walter’s the studious one of the family. He’ll make a name for himself some day, for he’s got the real stuff in him, that chap.”
“So that you’re the idle one, who looks on and does nothing?”
“I’m afraid I am; but they’re all so clever that there’s nothing left for me. And I think even they are cut out by my cousins at Colchester. It’s an odd thing, but there are three distinct branches of the Browne family, one at Colchester, one here, and one as far north as Caithness, though we haven’t the remotest idea how they got up there.”