That will make him despise me and treat me like a child.'
'Oh, I say,' protested the earl, 'I should have thought you'd lived
long enough in England to have got out of the notion that we do not
appreciate the foreigner. Indeed, we are the only nation in the world
that extends a cordial welcome to him, rich or poor.'
'_Certainement_, my lord, I should be deeply disappointed did you not
take me at my proper valuation, but I cherish no delusions regarding
the contempt with which Higgins will regard me. He will look upon me
as a sort of simpleton to whom the Lord had been unkind by not making
England my native land. Now, Higgins must be led to believe that I am
in his own class; that is, a servant of yours. Higgins and I will
gossip over the fire together, should these spring evenings prove
chilly, and before two or three weeks are past I shall have learned a
great deal about your uncle that you never dreamed of. Higgins will
talk more freely with a fellow-servant than with his master, however
much he may respect that master, and then, as I am a foreigner, he
will babble down to my comprehension, and I shall get details that he
never would think of giving to a fellow-countryman.'
* * * * *
The young earl's modesty in such description of his home as he had
given me, left me totally unprepared for the grandeur of the mansion,
one corner of which he inhabited.
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