“Well, I tell you what it is, Mr. Greatorex. You invite me to go a cruise in your yacht. The mater’s got a notion that my lungs are weak, and was saying only the other day that a sea trip would do me good. I’d see some of the fun, then.”
“There you are, Mr. Oliphant! Fun! I regard it as most serious, I assure you. Now, in my young days——”
“I bet you liked fun as well as any of us, Mr. Greatorex,” said Oliphant quickly. “If the truth were known, I dare say you really beat us all.”
Mr. Greatorex’s eyes twinkled.
“Well, now I come to think of it, I was a wild young rip. So they all said. I remember—— But come now, I mustn’t tell you that. Never do! Your father would never let you go; he doesn’t know me and doesn’t want to, and I’m doing my level best to kick him out at the next election.”
“And he’ll probably be jolly glad if you succeed! Mayn’t I come, Mr. Greatorex?”
“Sorry to disoblige you, Mr. Oliphant, but it would never do. No. In fact, I think we’ll give it up altogether. Too risky! We’ll give it up, Tom.”
Oliphant went home in a very bad temper.
“Mrs. Greatorex is a dear old thing,” said his sister.
“And Mr. Greatorex is an old rotter,” retorted Raymond in a tone of disgust.