Von Gleichroeder looked round, and shrugged his shoulders. He did not seem particularly surprised.
"Would you not like to play for grown-up children to dance? For fashionable society to crowd to hear you, and gather round you like children round a barrel-organ?"
"Fashionable society won't waste much of its time on me. I've been in prison three years for bogus company promoting."
"So! But that is good. Without that attraction you could fill the Bechstein, but with it you can fill the Albert Hall."
"Gammon."
"Not at all. My dear young man, I see a glorious future ahead of you, if you will only trouble to secure it. Come to London and study music——"
"Please don't talk nonsense."
"It is not nonsense. You are wonderfully gifted. I don't say you are a genius, for you are not—but you are wonderfully gifted, and your history will make you interesting to the ladies. With your talent and your history and—and your face, you ought to do really well, if only some enterprising person would take you in hand."
"Which isn't likely."