"Let me see!" said the captain, a good soldier and a good singer, but not burdened with more brains than are necessary for these professions--"let me see! Gad--'shamed to say, Lady Car'line, forgot what we were talkin' of!" "Mr. Chennery--you remember now?" "Yas, yas, course, thousand pardons! Well, several people who heard him at Carabas House think him wonderful." "A tenor, you say?" "Pure tenor, one of the richest, purest tenor voices ever heard! Man's fortune's made--if he only behaves himself!" "How do you mean, 'behaves himself,' Captain Frampton?" asked Lady Caroline, raising her eyebrows. "Well, I mean sassiety, and all that kind of thing, Lady Caroline! Man not accustomed to sassiety might, as they say, put his foot in it!" "I see," said Lady Caroline, with an assumption of gravity. "Exactly! and that would indeed be dreadful. But is this gentleman not accustomed to society?" "Not in the least; and in point of fact not a gentleman, so far as I'm led to understand. Father's a shepherd; outdoor labouring something down at Lord Westonhanger's place in Wiltshire; boy was apprenticed to a stonemason, but people staying at the house heard of his singing, sent for him, and Lord Westonhanger was so charmed with his voice, had him sent to Italy and taught. That's the story!" "Surely one that reflects great credit on all concerned," said Lady Caroline. "But I yet fail to see why Mr. Chennery should not behave himself!" "Well, you see, Lady Caroline, Carabas House, and that sort of thing--people he'll meet there, you know, different from anything he's ever seen before." "But he can but be a gentleman, Captain Frampton. If he were a prince, he could be no more!" "No, exactly, course not; but pardon me, that's just it, don't you see, the difficulty is for the man to be a gentleman." "Not at all; not the slightest difficulty!" And here Lady Caroline almost imperceptibly turned a little towards Joyce. "If Mr. Chennery is thrown into different society from that to which he has been hitherto accustomed, and is at all nervous about his reception or his conduct in it, he has merely to be natural and just as he always has been, to avoid any affectation, and he cannot fail to please. The art which he possesses, and the education he has received, are humanising influences, and he certainly contributes more than the average quota towards the enjoyment of what people call society."