Page:Her Benny - Silas K Hocking (Warne, 1890).djvu/267

Rh to see to it that you don^t go and make a fool of yourself. A lot you know about etiquette and drawing-room manners; and won't you do the graceful before the ladies? Oh, dear, dear!" And he laughed till the tears ran down his face, spite the pain in his arm.

"I think I see you going through the introduction, my lad, trying to do the thing proper as if you knew how, and only succeeding in making yourself look silly. And won't the ladies giggle after you^re gone!" Then Benny looked serious, and after a long pause he went on again—

"Look here, Ben Bates: do you think you are a downright fool, or do you think you have just a few grains of common sense? For, unless you're a born natural, you'll put on no airs at the big house; but you'll just be yourself, remember, and not ape anybody else; you profess a great hatred of sham, then don't be a sham yourself, and make yourself look ridiculous. Remember what you are, Ben Bates; and remember, too, that you've got nothing to be ashamed of."

Then after another pause—

"I wish I was well out of this job, notwithstanding. I hate to be thanked. I wonder, by-the-bye, who that young lady is? How her face reminds me of something, something in the old life, but what I cannot make out. How strange everything seems! I fancy sometimes I must have lived here always, and dreamed all the rest. But no, Nelly,