"I've said, I think, all I came to say," he repeated, in his slow manner. "Don't tell your mother--when you know the truth--what I said, nor why I came here. Best for her to believe that you behave, as you are going to behave, out of your own good heart--you can pretend a bit, I suppose, without any thought of the dollars. And when you get those dollars, you can say to yourself, young man, that you wouldn't have had them if it hadn't been for your mother." With these words John Haveril offered his hand. Humphrey looked straight through him, taking no notice of the proffered salute. "I was once in the service of an English gentleman," he said--"in his garden. But for that I should believe that the English aristocracy was more unmannerly than any New Mexican cowboy. Sir, to use what I understand is your favourite expression where manners are concerned, you are yourself nothing better than a cad and an outsider. But do not tell your mother, when you know the truth, that I said so. Let it be a secret between ourselves that I have found you to be a cad--an unmannerly cad." He then departed with dignity. Humphrey looked after him with surprise rather than anger. To be called an outsider by a beast of a self-made Dives who had formerly been a gardener! It was astonishing; it was a new experience; it was ludicrous. He ran upstairs to the drawing-room, where his mother was alone, writing. "If I may interrupt," he said. "Thank you. One moment. Mother, I've had a most remarkable visit." "Who is your visitor?" "I wonder why they ever invented America," he said. "I wonder why we tolerate Americans--rich Americans--who have been English mechanics. Why do we admit them into our houses?" "It is a mistake. But it is useless to protest. Why do you ask?" "My visitor was a man who came last from America, where he has made a great fortune--robbed the people by the thousand, I suppose--a man named Haveril." "Haveril!" "I met the man the other night at Sir Robert Steele's." "Vulgar, of course." "Not so vulgar as ignorant--say, common. He told me he was a gardener's boy originally. Seemed to think it was a meritorious thing." "It is the mock-humility of the purse-proud. But what did he want with you?" "He is mighty mysterious about some secret which is going to be sprung upon me. It is now, he said, completely discovered." "'Completely discovered,' you said, my son?" "And I am to be told in a day or two. After which, everything depends upon my behaviour." "Oh! Of what nature is the wonderful secret?" "I don't know. Then he went on with a rigmarole about my being no relation of his--as if such a thing were possible! And he promises a mountain of dollars if I obey the wishes of my mother. Have you any special wishes, mother?" "None--except those which you already know, and do not respect." "I live as other men in my position are expected to live." "Go on about your mysterious visitor."