Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/177

Rh "I'm expecting, sir," said Hugh good-humouredly, "a report from hour to hour."

"Then will you let me have it right off?"

Hugh indulged in a pause; after which very frankly: "Ah, it's scarcely for you, Mr. Bender that I'm acting!"

The great collector was but briefly checked. "Well, can't you just act for Art?"

"Oh, you're doing that yourself so powerfully," Hugh laughed, "that I think I had best leave it to you!"

His friend looked at him as some inspector on circuit might look at a new improvement "Don't you want to go round acting with me?"

"Go 'on tour,' as it were? Oh, frankly, Mr. Bender," Hugh said, "if I had any weight!"

"You'd add it to your end of the beam? Why, what have I done that you should go back on me—after working me up so down there? The worst I've done," Mr. Bender continued, "is to refuse that Moretto."

"Has it deplorably been offered you?" our young man cried, unmistakably and sincerely affected. After which he went on, as his