“I say, I say, I say!” cried Lord John, moved by this bold stroke to high admiration.
Lady Sandgate’s approval was more qualified. “But on view, dear Theign, how?”
“With one of those pushing people in Bond Street.” And then as for the crushing climax of his policy: “As a Mantovano pure and simple.”
“But my dear man,” she quavered, “if it isn’t one?”
Mr. Bender at once anticipated; the wind had suddenly risen for him and he let out sail. “Lady Sand-gate, it’s going, by all that’s—well, interesting, to be one!”
Lord Theign took him up with pleasure. “You seize me? We treat it as one!”
Lord John eagerly borrowed the emphasis. “We treat it as one!”
Mr. Bender meanwhile fed with an opened appetite on the thought—he even gave it back larger. “As the long-lost Number Eight!”
Lord Theign happily seized him. “That will be it—to a charm!”
“It will make them,” Mr. Bender asked, “madder than anything?”