“Fiddlesticks for your mission! The ‘Cause’ will not clothe us, and feed us, and pay the Mrs. Browns their bills.”
“Now, don’t fret; we may have a good house to-night, our bills are really posted everywhere.”
“Of course they are; they are on the doors of all the empty houses.”
“And who can tell how many heads I may have? I have remarked some really interesting subjects in this place. The temperaments are largely lymphatic. I saw the largest alimentativeness standing at an hotel door that I have ever seen.”
The Professor, having got on his favourite theme, would have gone on indefinitely, had not a servant come to the door to announce the visit of a gentleman from the newspaper.
“Show him up by all means,” said the Professor. “It is always wise to stand well with the Press, and besides, he may want his character read. It would be a most excellent advertisement for us, most excellent.”
The gentleman from the newspaper was coming up the stairs with an aggressive step. As general utility in the office he had been dispatched to demand immediate cash payment of the printing bill, and he felt no hesitation in undertaking the task. He had been told to stand no humbug, and he meant to act up to instructions. Hubert Gosper was a tall, lank youth, with the Colonial looseness of limb, like wheels on an old axle that want screwing up; a narrow face, regular features, the eyes small and set back, as Australian eyes are wont to be, with the accompanying lines in the forehead, and contraction of the eyebrows, due to the glare of light. As he entered the room with careless confidence the Professor bowed to him, but before he could commence his abrupt demand, his eye caught the face of Bertha Summerhayes.
And she smiled at him graciously, and from her eyes came a fire that flashed through him, seared him in some way, making him, as it were, from that moment, and instantly, in some sort, another man. For the nonce he was almost dumb, and stumbled and stammered disconnected words.
The Professor in pity came to his assistance. “Ah; no doubt you wish to have your character read? I shall do so with the greatest pleasure. Of course, members of the Press are on my free list. Take a chair.”
Hubert, or Huey, as he was commonly called, mechanically obeyed.