“Oh Rivers and Lakes—an awfully good thing. He got it last year.”
Mr. Longdon—but not too grossly—wondered. “How did he get it?”
Vanderbank laughed. “Well, SHE got it.”
His friend remained grave. “And about how much now—?”
“Oh twelve hundred—and lots of allowances and boats and things. To do the work!” Vanderbank, still with a certain levity, added.
“And what IS the work?”
The young man had a pause. “Ask HIM. He’ll like to tell you.”
“Yet he seemed to have but little to say.” Mr. Longdon exactly measured it again.
“Ah not about that. Try him.”
He looked more sharply at his host, as if vaguely suspicious of a trap; then not less vaguely he sighed. “Well, it’s what I came up for—to try you all. But do they live on that?” he continued.