Without causing him to pause in his congratulations, Tinker's active
mind had placed the two women as a wealthy Englishwoman and her
companion, and was hesitating whether to place the man in the class of
Continental Guides or private detectives, when he pointed to the two
children, and said something to the majestic lady.
"That's the little boy, is it? Then you two go and sit on the next
seat while I talk to him," said the majestic lady in a voice which lost
in pleasantness what it gained in loudness; and she came to the seat on
which Tinker and Elsie sat, while her attendants walked on.
Now to call him a little boy was by no means the quickest way to
Tinker's heart, and he watched her draw near with a cold eye. But all
the same when she made as if to sit down, he rose and raised his hat
with a charming smile. She sat down and looked him over with a cool
consideration which provoked his fastidiousness to no admiration of her
breeding. Then she said:
"Are you Sir Tancred Beauleigh's little boy?"
"I am Hildebrand Anne Beauleigh," said Tinker in a faintly corrective
tone quite lost on her complacent mind.
"Hildebrand Anne! Hildebrand Anne! She called you Hildebrand Anne,
did she? The impudence of these minxes!" said the majestic lady, and
she sniffed like a lady of the lower-middle classes.
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