"Thank you, no," interrupted the Colonel hastily but politely.
"It is well. And you, sir?" The Professor turned to Vernon. "Nothing for me, thank you. I have called both to see Mr. Hest and yourself, sir, as I wish to engage Miss Hest to recite at the 'At Home' of a friend of mine. Lady Brankworth. Perhaps you know her?"
"Well. I know her well. I have superintended amateur plays in her drawing-room on more than one occasion. Ah! so she desires the services of my talented pupil? And on what date?"
"Thursday week, I think. But I am not sure. I shall have to see her again and then can let you know. Miss Hest is away, I fancy."
"In her ancestral home in Yorkshire," said the actor rolling his words out grandly, "but she returns shortly and will be delighted to accept of the engagement provided the fees----"
"Those will be all right, Professor. Lady Brankworth pays liberally."
"And so she ought, to secure the services of Miss Hest. I assure you, sir, that I have rarely come across a lady who recites so nobly. If she would only pay attention to her art instead of indulging in social frivolity with that unfortunate young lady who lost her father at Hampstead, she would become one of our greatest actresses."
"I fancy her brother does not wish her to go on the stage," said Vernon.
Professor Garrick Gail waved his hand and then thrust it into his coat in Napoleonic fashion. "He is prejudiced, prejudiced. I would he were on the stage himself, if only because he resembles his sister, my talented pupil, so closely. As Viola and Sebastian in 'Twelfth Night,' they would take the town by storm. Always provided," said the old actor with another wave, "that Mr. Hest has the same talent in measure as his sister has: a fact I am by no means sure of."
"They are very like one another," broke in Towton coldly.
"For that reason I wish both were on the stage to play in twin parts," replied the Professor in his most stately manner. "They are as like as two eggs, as you observe, sir. But Mr. Hest thinks little of our glorious profession, and is staying here in the vain hope of inducing me to persuade his sister, my talented pupil, to surrender the laurel wreath of the stage. Needless to say, I decline to commit so great a crime."