“Sir,” replied Mr. Brentin, “I know very little of your titled aristocracy, but I admit it did not sound right to me. However, I talked it over with my friend, the clerk in the bureau, and he assured me that Hipkins is his real name; that he has been for some years judge on the Gold Coast, and, by the personal favor of your Queen Victoria, has been lately elevated to the dignity of knighthood, as some compensation for his complaint caught in the service. He had the next room to us, but the midnight groaning-act in which he occasionally indulged was too much for Mrs. Brentin, and we were forced to shift.”
“Has he spoken to you about his yacht?”
“He introdooced himself right here in the parlor, and offered it me for three thousand pounds.”
“What did you say?”
“I presented him to Mrs. Brentin right away, as I invariably do when I want an inconvenient request refused. She explained that ay steam-yacht was very little use to her in the journeys she is at present taking about this city in search of the localities of Charles Dickens. Whereupon Judge Hipkins, who impressed me as being brainy, immediately replied, ‘What about Yarmouth and little Em’ly’ ”
“What did Mrs. Brentin say to that?”
“Why, sir, Mrs. Brentin thought three thousand pounds too much to pay for the privilege of approaching Yarmouth by sea; more especially as she is a bad sailor, and commences to be sick at her stomach before leaving the kay-side. Now, however, Mr. Blacker,” he said, rising, “we will, if you please, go and find Sir Anthony Hipkins, and we will buy his steam-yacht.”
The rapidity of the American mind somewhat alarmed me; still, I felt there was nothing for it but to follow Mr. Brentin. He went straight to the bureau, and, on inquiring for Sir Anthony, learned he was up-stairs ill in bed, and that his wife was with him.
As we went up in the lift, Mr. Brentin winked at me. “It is in our favor, sir, that the judge is sick; we will be sympathetic, but we will not offer more than two thousand five hundred pounds.”
We found No. 246, and Mr. Brentin knocked. A deep groaning voice called to us to come in.