We were in the streets of London, so he was obliged to moderate his vehemence.
'Have you consulted Janet?' said I.
'Consulted her? ever since she was a chick with half a feather on.'
'A chick with half a feather on,' I remarked, 'is not always of the same mind as a piece of poultry of full plumage.'
'Hang your sneering and your talk of a fine girl, like my Janet, as a piece of poultry, you young rooster! You toss your head up like a cock too conceited to crow. I 'll swear the girl 's in love with you. She does you the honour to be fond of you. She 's one in a million. A handsome girl, straight-backed, honest, just a dash, and not too much, of our blood in her.'
'Consult her again, sir,' I broke in. 'You will discover she is not of your way of thinking.'
'Do you mean to say she's given you a left-hander, Harry?'
'I have only to say that I have not given her the option.'
He groaned going up the steps of his hotel, faced me once or twice, and almost gained my sympathy by observing, 'When we're boys, the old ones worry us; when we're old ones, the boys begin to tug!' He rarely spoke so humanely,—rarely, at least, to me.
For a wonder, he let the matter drop: possibly because he found me temperate. I tried the system on him with good effect during our stay in London; that is, I took upon myself to be always cool, always courteous, deliberate in my replies, and not uncordial, though I was for representing the reserved young man. I obtained some praise for my style and bearing among his acquaintances. To one lady passing an encomium on me, he said, 'Oh, some foreign princess has been training him,' which seemed to me of good augury.