"No offence, old bean! Of course he gathered loads of honey, and all that: a jolly useful life—adventurous, too—saw a lot of the world, don't you know: always on the move. That part would suit me to a T. We're both like the bee, you see: you in your industry, and what you may call stickiness; me in my roving propensity, my incurable levity, my passion for honeydew—in the form of cigarettes. I say, Bob, I think I'll write for the magazines. I don't see why my ideas shouldn't be worth something, as well as yours."
"What ideas?"
"That's an unkind cut, after I've been spouting ideas galore. I'm afraid the mechanical mind will always be blind to the beauties of literature. 'A primrose by the river's brim'—Steady, old sport, you nearly capsized us!" Templeton had swung round suddenly into a by-lane. "I was quoting a sublime passage from one William Wordsworth."
"Well, never mind him," said Templeton, drawing up in front of a solitary cottage. "Here we are! Go straight up the stairs—you'll find a clean towel. I'll tell Mrs. Pouncey you're here, and follow you."
When the two friends entered the little sitting-room a few minutes later the landlady, a short, very stout, pleasant-faced woman of sixty or thereabouts, had just placed two steaming plates of soup on the table.
"My friend Mr. Eves, Mrs. Pouncey," said Templeton.
"How d'ye do, Mrs. Pouncey?" said Eves, shaking hands. "Mr. Templeton has been telling me you're the best cook in the three kingdoms. You know you did, Bob; don't protest. He's very hard to please, Mrs. Pouncey, very; and if he's satisfied, you may be sure that a man of my humbler tastes will be absolutely bowled over."
"Well, now, I declare I wouldn't have thought it. Mr. Templeton have never said a single grumble, not one. He's the best young man lodger as I've ever had, that I will say—no trouble at all!"
"Ah, Mrs. Pouncey! how many young men lodgers have you said the same thing about? Your last lodger, for instance, now, confess!"
"'Deed no, sir. You be very far out. My last lodger was—there, I couldn't abide en, he was that cantankerous, and such language—I never did! I know a real gentleman when I see en, and he was nothing but a make-believe, for all his fur coat. Thankful I am he was only here a few days, and that to oblige the mayor."