'Ah, sir,' replied the little man, 'were all our great people like you! In the country—the provinces—they treat the representatives of the Fourth Estate as the squires a couple of generations back used to treat the parsons.'
'What! Have you got a place at their tables?' inquired Captain DeWitt.
'No, I cannot say that—not even below the salt. Mr. Richmond—Mr. Roy, you may not be aware of it: I am the proprietor of the opposition journals in this county. I tell you in confidence, one by itself would not pay; and I am a printer, sir, and it is on my conscience to tell you I have, in the course of business, been compelled this very morning to receive orders for the printing of various squibs and, I much fear, scurrilous things.'
My father pacified him.
'You will do your duty to your family, Mr. Hickson.'
Deeply moved, the little man pulled out proof-sheets and slips.
'Even now, at the eleventh hour,' he urged, 'there is time to correct any glaring falsehoods, insults, what not!'
My father accepted the copy of proofs.
'Not a word,—not a line! You spoke of the eleventh hour, Mr. Hickson. If we are at all near the eleventh, I must be on my way to make my bow to Lady Wilts; or is it Lady Denewdney's to-night? No, to-morrow night.'
A light of satisfaction came over Mr. Hickson's face at the mention of my father's visiting both these sovereign ladies.