"Your flattery is too subtle. You wrap it up too much: like an American caramel. Please remember that my perception is not as delicate as yours."
"There is one thing I wanted to ask you, but whilst you are in this mood, I won't."
He turned to walk away. Dick realized the possibility of carrying a joke too far; in a minute was all repentance. He would not have wounded his friend's feelings for worlds; called out:
"Come back.... Orate. I'll be as sober as a judge."
Masters walked back to where Dick was sitting; stood facing the boy again. It was plain that he was really worried; evidently had something on his mind. Dick paid as much quiet attention as it was possible for him to bestow as the author spoke:
"You will oblige me very much by listening. This business reminds me of the boys and the frog, and I am not finding the rôle of frog a pleasant one to fill. If you will drop stone throwing and let me croak, I shall take it as a particular favour."
"When I told you that I had lived at Wivernsea for years, I should have said only a month in each year. I go down there each October."
Dick's intentions were good, but his high spirits got the better of him. The look on his companion's face induced him to settle for another effort of solemnity.
"It was necessary for me to tell you that; by way of explanation of how little I know of Ivy Cottage!"
Masters was leaning against the handrail, his fingers handling the ropes which supported the lifeboat. He put both arms through and, resting so, spoke on:
"People in Wivernsea--who don't know your sister--don't speak well of the place, Dick."
The gravity in the speaker's manner was not without its effect on the boy. A spasm of pain shot across his face; he sat up soberly enough now. The feet ceased their drumming; the hands came out of his pockets; the air of nonchalance fell from him like a mask.
"That is what I am anxious to have explained. In a sense, it is no business of mine, but I want it cleared up for your sister's sake; and I think you ought to know."
"This tittle-tattle I am referring to. It goes to the length of saying that people living at Ivy Cottage go under false names. That not long since, the sheriff was in possession under a warrant of execution and the furniture was seized. Of course, I know they are all lies----"