“He’d better be polite to young ladies,” said the irrepressible Jill. “If he doesn’t, I know somebody who will make him.”
“Be silent, miss, and bear in mind my wishes.”
That afternoon Captain Oliphant sent a polite message to his co-trustee requesting the favour of an interview.
Mr Armstrong found him in an unusually balmy frame of mind, anxious to go into the executorship accounts.
Everything was square and exact. The rents and other receipts were all in order, and the amount duly paid into the bank. The tutor quite admired his colleague’s aptitude for figures, and the lucid manner in which he accounted for every farthing which had passed through his hands. He was hardly prepared for such precision, and there and then modified the previous bad impression he had formed.
“It is necessary to be particular in money matters,” said the captain, “especially where the money of others is involved. Perhaps you will check my figures, sir, and let me know if you agree in the result.”
Mr Armstrong spent an afternoon painfully going over the agent’s and banker’s accounts, and satisfying himself that all was absolutely correct and in order. He countersigned the balance-sheet, and went out of his way to thank Captain Oliphant for taking so much of the labour as to save both him and Mrs Ingleton a great deal of time.
“Thank you,” said the captain drily; “a compliment from Signor Francisco is worth receiving. But it is uncalled-for. Good afternoon, sir.”
Mr Armstrong flushed, and screwed his glass violently in his eye.
“A civil, pleasant-spoken gentleman,” said he to himself as he returned to his room.