"Now what did this cost?" he asked, when he saw the terrace extending
round the corner.
"What should you think?" inquired Bosinney.
"How should I know?" replied James somewhat nonplussed; "two or three
hundred, I dare say!"
"The exact sum!"
James gave him a sharp look, but the architect appeared unconscious, and
he put the answer down to mishearing.
On arriving at the garden entrance, he stopped to look at the view.
"That ought to come down," he said, pointing to the oak-tree.
"You think so? You think that with the tree there you don't get enough
view for your money."
Again James eyed him suspiciously--this young man had a peculiar way of
putting things: "Well!" he said, with a perplexed, nervous, emphasis, "I
don't see what you want with a tree."
"It shall come down to-morrow," said Bosinney.
James was alarmed. "Oh," he said, "don't go saying I said it was to come
down! I know nothing about it!"
"No?"
James went on in a fluster: "Why, what should I know about it? It's
nothing to do with me! You do it on your own responsibility."
"You'll allow me to mention your name?"
James grew more and more alarmed: "I don't know what you want mentioning
my name for," he muttered; "you'd better leave the tree alone. It's not
your tree!"
He took out a silk handkerchief and wiped his brow. They entered the
house. Like Swithin, James was impressed by the inner court-yard.
"You must have spent a douce of a lot of money here," he said, after
staring at the columns and gallery for some time. "Now, what did it cost
to put up those columns?"
"I can't tell you off-hand," thoughtfully answered Bosinney, "but I know
it was a deuce of a lot!"
"I should think so," said James. "I should...." He caught the
architect's eye, and broke off. And now, whenever he came to anything of
which he desired to know the cost, he stifled that curiosity.
Bosinney appeared determined that he should see everything, and had not
James been of too 'noticing' a nature, he would certainly have found
himself going round the house a second time. He seemed so anxious to be
asked questions, too, that James felt he must be on his guard. He began
to suffer from his exertions, for, though wiry enough for a man of his
long build, he was seventy-five years old.
He grew discouraged; he seemed no nearer to anything, had not obtained
from his inspection any of the knowledge he had vaguely hoped for. He
had merely increased his dislike and mistrust of this young man, who had
tired him out with his politeness, and in whose manner he now certainly
detected mockery.