"Oh, I'm sure you'll say so. Signor Pincocca told mamma it would be a crime if she didn't let him study seriously for the career. And Cæsar has been under him years since then. Pincocca says when he 'comes out' people 'll rave about him. If he had had just a 'fine voice,' he would have gone on the Stock Exchange, you know, with papa; but—but there could be no question about it with a gift like that."
Kent acknowledged that it was natural they should be profoundly interested by the young fellow's promise. Privately he wished that a literary man could also leap into fame and fortune with his debut.
The next afternoon when he reached The Hawthorns he heard that Cæsar had already come—indeed, he had divined as much by Mrs. Walford's jubilant air. At the moment the gentleman was not in the room; Cynthia ran to fetch him. Humphrey awaited his entrance with considerable curiosity, and the mother kept looking impatiently towards the door.
"I don't know what's keeping him," she said in her most staccato tones. "He went to fetch my book. Oh, he'll be here in a minute—or shall we go and look for him? Perhaps he's in the garden, and Cynthia can't find him. What do you say?"
"Just as you please," said Kent.
But as he spoke the girl returned, to announce that her brother was following her, and the next moment there was an atmosphere of brillantine and tuberoses, and Humphrey found his finger-tips being gently pressed in a large, moist palm.
"I am charmed," said Cæsar Walford with a lingering smile. "Charmed."
Kent saw a fat young man of six or seven and twenty, with an enormous chest development, and a waist that suggested that he wore stays and was already wrestling with his figure. His hair, which had been grown long, was arranged on his forehead in a negligent curl, and his shirt-collar, low in the neck, surmounted a flowing bow.
"I'm very pleased to meet you," said the author with disgust.
"I am charmed!" repeated Cæsar tenderly. "It's quite a delight. And it's you who are going to take Cynthia away from us, eh?" He glanced from one to the other, and shook a playful forefinger. "You bad man!... O wicked puss!"