"Oh!" exclaimed Cæsar, with charming confusion; "it's Humphrey's own line—of course it is! I always forget." He turned to Kent deprecatingly: "You know, I never associate you with it; it's a surprise every time I remember."
Kent said it was really of no consequence at all.
"Well, well, well," said Walford, "everybody to his trade! We can't all be born with a fortune in our throats. Wish we could—eh, Humphrey, my boy? Did you hear what Lassalle said about his voice the other day? Cæsar, just tell Humphrey what Lassalle said about your voice the other day."
"Oh, Humphrey doesn't want to listen to that long story," said Mrs. Walford, "I'm sure?"
He could do no less, after this, than express curiosity.
"Well, then, Cæsar, tell us what it was." "Do, Cæsar," begged his sister; "I haven't heard, either."
"A trifle," he demurred, "not interesting. I didn't know I'd mentioned it."
"Oh yes," said Miss Wix. "Don't you remember you told us the story at tea, and then you told it again to your father at dinner? But do tell Cynthia and Humphrey!"
"I—er—dined with Pincocca last night at his rooms," he drawled. "One or two men came in afterwards. He introduced me. I didn't pay much attention to the names—you know what it is—and by-and-by Pincocca pressed me to sing. He said I was 'a pupil,' and I could see that one of the men was prepared to be bored.... This really is so very personal that——"
"No, no, no! go on. What nonsense!" said his mother.