“Ah—ha!” interjected Sir Gilbert, but whether by way of expressing approval, or disapproval, his hearers could not tell.
“You see, sir, there are so many drawing-masters not merely with more experience than I, but with more natural ability to begin with.”
“Come now, that is well said, and becoming in a young fellow of your age: although, on the other hand, it is not perhaps advisable—more especially nowadays when everybody seems to make a point of blowing his or her special trumpet as loudly as possible—to underestimate yourself or treat yourself too diffidently. But tell me now, what you can do, or what you think you could do if the opportunity were afforded you. You have tastes, gifts, qualifications of some kind, I suppose?”
“If so, sir, they and I have hardly made acquaintance as yet. Both money and leisure have been such scarce commodities with me, and I have had to work so hard for my living that I suppose I hardly know myself as I really am, or perhaps I ought to say, as I should have been had the circumstances of my life been different.”
“There is good sense in what you say. Your modesty becomes you.”
Thanks to the Captain’s coaching, it was evident that Luigi had already succeeded in creating a favourable impression.
“You have had no opportunity of learning to ride, or shoot, I suppose?” queried Sir Gilbert.
“None whatever, sir.”
“Um—that’s a pity! What about the classics? Have you any knowledge of Latin, or Greek?”
Luigi shook his head.