Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/91

 would say, "is a little joke that only the Almighty and the Aunt are capable of appreciating."

In spite of his expensive tastes and insufficient income, Lord Drewitt had repeatedly refused pressing invitations to join the Boards of quite reputable companies. On one occasion, when a very obtuse financier had doubled his original offer of five hundred a year for "the most inconspicuous tax upon your lordship's time," Lord Drewitt had lazily asked him if he had ever played in a 'varsity match at Lord's. The puzzled city man confessed that he had not.

"Well, I have," was the reply, "and you learn a devil of a lot of cricket in the process, more than you can ever forget in the city."

Lord Drewitt had greatly offended his aunt, Lady Drewitt, when on one occasion she had suggested that he might go into the city, by saying, "My dear aunt, it has been said that it takes three generations to make a gentleman. I am the third Baron Drewitt."

For fully a minute the two men walked westward without speaking. It was Drewitt who at length broke the silence.

"I understood, Richard, that you had forsaken the haunts of men in favour of sitting under hedges and haystacks."

"I had to give it up," said Beresford with a self-conscious laugh. "I found the country is for the temperamentally robust."