In the sitting-room, on the morning of the day on which the governess was expected to arrive, Mr. French was talking to his cousin, Mr. Giveen, who, with his hat by his side, was seated on the sofa glancing over a newspaper.
The breakfast things were still on the table, the window was open to let in the glorious autumn day, and a blue haze of cigar-smoke hung in the air, created by the cigar of Mr. French.
Mr. Giveen did not smoke; his head would not stand it. Neither did he drink, and for the same reason.
He looked quite a young man when he had his hat on, but he was not; his head was absolutely bald.
He was dressed in well-worn grey tweed, and his collar was of the Gladstone type. Cruikshank's picture of Mr. Dick in "David Copperfield" might have been inspired by Mr. Giveen.
This gentleman, who carried about with him a faint atmosphere of madness, was not in the least mad in a great many ways; in some other ways he was—well, peculiar.
He inhabited a bungalow half way between Drumgool House and Drumboyne, and he had a small income, the exact extent of which he kept hidden. He had no profession, occupation, or trade, no family—French was his nearest relation, and continually wishing himself further away—no troubles, no cares. He neither read, smoked, drank, played billiards, cards, nor games of any description; all these methods of amusement were too much for Mr. Giveen's head. He had, however, two pastimes that kept his own and his neighbours hands full. Collecting news and distributing it was one of these pastimes; making love was the other.
Small as was Drumboyne, and few as were the gentry distributed around, Mr. Giveen's gossiping propensities had already created much mischief, and there was not a girl or unmarried woman within a range of fifteen miles that Mr. Giveen had not either made eyes at or love to.
The strange thing is that he could have been married several times. There were girls in Drumboyne who would have swallowed Mr. Giveen for the sake of the bungalow and the small income, which popular report made big, but he was not a marrying man. On the other hand he was a most moral man. He made love just for the sake of making love. It is an Irish habit. The question of bringing a governess to Drumgool House had been held in abeyance for some time on account of Mr. Giveen.