"I have often thought," pursued Theodore, quite unaware that his listener was regarding him with a mixture of astonishment and disfavour, "that it is a great pity a man of Captain Cheffington's abilities and accomplishments should live out of England; unless, indeed, he held some diplomatic appointment abroad. In my opinion these are times in which the great old families should hold fast by the public service. As I ventured to say to one of our county members the other day——" And so on, and so on. Having thus happily launched himself, Theodore proceeded in his best Parliamentary style: holding forth with a power of self-complacent and steady boredom beyond his years. A sensitive person would have been petrified by the unsympathizing stare from behind those tortoise-shell-rimmed glasses; but Theodore was not sensitive to such influences: being fortified by the à priori conviction that he must naturally make a favourable impression. And since Lucius Cheffington could not, compatibly with his own dignity, plainly tell him that he considered him a presumptuous young ass, there was nothing to check his flow of eloquence.
But at length the cold stare was softened, and the pale, peevish, furrowed face turned to Theodore with a faint show of interest. Some casual word of this intrusive young man's seemed to show that he came from Oldchester.
"Do you know—a—Mrs.—a—Dobbs?" asked Lucius, speaking for the first time, and edging in this point-blank question between two of Theodore's neatly-turned sentences setting forth a political parallel between the late Lord Tweedledum and the present Right Honourable Tweedledee.
It was a shock; but Theodore bore it stoically.
"Not exactly. I have spoken with her. Mrs. Dobbs is not precisely——in our set," he answered, with a slight smile at one corner of his mouth, intended to demolish Mrs. Dobbs.
"I thought that, being a native of Oldchester, you might—a—be——" begun Mr. Cheffington in his low, harsh tones.
"Be acquainted with her? Really——"
"I thought that, being a native of Oldchester, you might—a—be able to tell me something about her."
"Not much, I fear," replied Theodore. He felt tempted to add that in Oldchester there were natives and natives.
"She's—a—rich, isn't she?" pursued Mr. Cheffington.