“No, I shall be going to bed very shortly.”
“Very well, sir.” Billings mended the fire, replaced the tongs and stood carefully erect again, chuckling reminiscently. Then finding Ethan’s eyes on him questioningly he said: “she took me, sir, too, with her camery.”
“Really? I should like to see the picture.”
“Thank you, sir. It’s in the kitchen. Shall I fetch it? Lizzie says it’s a very speakin’ likeness, sir, excepting that I was sort o’ took by surprise, so to say, and had no time to spruce up.”
“Yes, bring it in by all means.”
The gardener hurried away and Ethan turned again to the picture. When Billings returned Ethan said carelessly:
“By the way, if your wife asks about this you can tell her I have—er—taken charge of it. Ah, this is the picture, eh? Why, I’d call that excellent, Billings, excellent! Truly, a very speaking likeness. You say Miss Devereux took this?”
“Yes, sir, the same day they was taking the others, sir. I had lopped off the branches and was standin’ by watching, sir, and after she had taken that one there, sir, she said to me: ‘Billings, would you mind if I took’——”
“Not after she’d taken this, Billings,” interrupted Ethan, in the interests of accuracy. “She didn’t take this one, of course.”