nothing of this,” he said, quite politely. “I should be grateful if you would
“Well, we arranged with Mr. Bickersteth that eighty-seven citizens of Birdsburg should have the privilege of meeting and shaking hands with you for a financial consideration mutually arranged, and what my friend Simms here means—and I’m with him—is that we have only Mr. Bickersteth’s word for it—and he is a stranger to us—that you are the Duke of Chiswick at all.”
Old Chiswick gulped.
“Allow me to assure you, sir,” he said, in a rummy kind of voice, “that I am the Duke of Chiswick.”
“Then that’s all right,” said the chappie heartily. “That was all we wanted to know. Let the thing go on.”