Mr. Edward had gone home the evening before with his thoughts running on the tin painting, and pinning his brother Ben by the button-hole without loss of time he told him of a plan which he had thought of for Honor's benefit, and which only required discussion with him, Mr. Benjamin, to be carried into instant effect.
"And although I should still like to break Mr. Nathan's head with this stick," says Mr. Edward to his brother, and shaking the said stick menacingly, "I cannot help feeling grateful to the rogue, Ben, for having, as it were, paved the way for our helping Miss Honor, poor child, in a manner which cannot possibly hurt her feelings. That was a good thought of yours, Ben, a capital thought, about Spaull the picture-dealer. If this tin painting is to come into vogue for a time--and I suppose it will from what Miss Honor said--he will be just the man to place the paintings with; and of course we must bind him over to strict secrecy as to our part in the business, eh, Ben?" and Mr. Ned nudges his brother playfully with his stick.
"Yes," answers Mr. Benjamin, nodding and smiling.
"Why, bless me," adds Mr. Ned, "we shall have to do quite a nice little piece of acting. But here comes Miss Honor. Now we shall see what she says to our plan. Mind you must be very careful, Ben, not to let the cat out of the bag--you run on at such a rate sometimes, you know; and it would never do for her to think we were paying for the paintings in the first instance, though of course it will be quite the same to us when Spaull refunds the money." And here they trot forward to open the gate for Honor, who has just reached it.
After inquiring rather breathlessly as to the welfare of the roses at the Rookery, and Molly's real, honest opinion about them, they dash straight into the subject of the painting.
"We have been talking it all over, Brother Ben and I, and it seems to us that with your gift for painting, my dear, you might make a very nice thing of this. Now, we happen to know a man in the picture-dealing trade, a Mr. Spaull, a most respectable man, who would be just the very person to suit our purpose; and what we propose--"
"Yes, what we propose," repeats Mr. Ben, nodding at Honor.