Andrews showed him in. I was, of course, familiar with Mr Lessingham’s appearance, but it was the first time I had had with him any personal communication. He held out his hand to me.
‘You are Mr Champnell?’
‘I am.’
‘I believe that I have not had the honour of meeting you before, Mr Champnell, but with your father, the Earl of Glenlivet, I have the pleasure of some acquaintance.’
I bowed. He looked at me, fixedly, as if he were trying to make out what sort of man I was.
‘You are very young, Mr Champnell.’
‘I have been told that an eminent offender in that respect once asserted that youth is not of necessity a crime.’
‘And you have chosen a singular profession,—one in which one hardly looks for juvenility.’
‘You yourself, Mr Lessingham, are not old. In a statesman one expects grey hairs.—I trust that I am sufficiently ancient to be able to do you service.’
He smiled.