“Ha, ha, very good, very good!” said Mr. W. P. Walkinshaw, as he began writing, “Messrs. Crumpett and Hawker have had the extreme gratification of reading the MS. of your very able and deeply thoughtful work, The Genuflexions of a Natural Christian.” Having committed this sentence to paper he paused ere he shaped the next, and said in that manner which expert criticism allowed to be almost as “authentic” as that of Mr. Octavius himself, “Tell me, Dodson, do you candidly consider that young Jordan is fit to occupy a stool in the counting-house of Crumpett and Hawker?”
Mr. Dodson, whose technique was far too fine to reply off-hand to a direct canvass of his judgment by one of the calibre of Mr. Walter Pater Walkinshaw, notwithstanding that he was in a position to do so, appeared to parry the question delicately.
“Well, sir,” he said, with such an approximation to the manner of Mr. Octavius, that for a moment the luminary at the low table had the illusion that he had presumed to catechize the head of the firm, “well, sir,” said Mr. Dodson, “since you—ah, put the question point-blank, as one might say, perhaps it is incumbent upon one to observe that whatever opinion one may form, one may not always feel justified in—ah, giving it expression.”
“One respects your scruples immensely, Mr. Dodson, they do you credit,” said Mr. W. P. Walkinshaw, who also respected that eminent worldling’s diction and mode of utterance immensely, although he did not say so; “but I invite you, Mr. Dodson, to be perfectly frank. I need not say your frankness will go no farther.”
“Well, sir, if you really press the question,” said Mr. Dodson, with a simplicity he did not feel, “I have—ah, come to the con-clusion, reluctantly to the con-clusion that William Jordan, Junior, idiomatically speaking, is not more than fivepence ha’penny to the shilling.”
“That is to say, Dodson,” said Mr. Walter Pater Walkinshaw, “in your opinion he is non compos mentis?”
“That is so, sir, putting it classically, which unfortunately I am not in the habit of doing myself,” said Mr. Dodson. “In fact, sir, since you appear to press the question, it is my opinion that, allowing for the usual trade discount, fivepence ha’penny to the shilling is nothing like good enough for the counting-house of Crumpett and Hawker.”
“I agree with you, Dodson, I am entirely of that opinion myself,” said Mr. W. P. Walkinshaw, sighing deeply. “And I assume it behoves one to convey such an opinion to Mr. Octavius.”
This suggestion, however, plunged Mr. Dodson in deep thought. Such a verdict had only to be presented to the head of the firm, for his extreme solicitude for the traditions of Crumpett and Hawker, to ensure the immediate dismissal of William Jordan, Junior. And in the light of that day’s developments, during their first luncheon together, such a consummation was not wholly to be desired.
“There is just one point, sir,” said Mr. Dodson, “that is if one is free to mention it.”