and an mr so i � i am given to understand of immense ability by ic the brass bottle i m afraid i can t claim to be that said but i may call myself fairly competent competent why of course you re competent do you suppose sir that i a practical business man should come to any one who was not competent he said with exactly the air of a man trying to convince against his own judgment � that he was acting with the utmost prudence am i to understand that some one has been good enough to recommend me to you inquired certainly not sir certainly not i need no recommendation but my own judgment i� ah � have a tolerable acquaintance with all that is going on in the art world and i have come to the conclusion mr � eh � ah � i repeat the deliberate and conclusion that you are the one man living who can do what i want delighted to hear it said gratified when did you see any of my designs never mind sir i don t decide without very good grounds it doesn t take me long to make up my mind and when my mind is made up i act sir i act and to come to the point i have a small commission � unworthy i am quite aware of your � ah � distinguished talent � which i should like to put in your hands is he going to ask me to attend a sale for him thought i m hanged if i do by ic i m rather busy at present he said as you may see i m not sure whether i ll put the matter in a sir � in a my name is samuel � tolerably well known if i may say so in city circles of course concealed the fact that his visitor s name and fame were to him i ve lately bought a few acres on the border near the house i m living in just now and i ve been thinking � as i was saying to a friend only just now as we were crossing westminster bridge � i ve been thinking of building myself a little place there just a humble home where i could run down for the and entertain a friend or two in a quiet way and perhaps live some part of the year hitherto i ve places as i wanted em � old family seats and and so forth very nice in their way but i want to feel under a roof of my own i want to surround myself with the simple comforts ah � elegance of an english country home and you re the man � i feel more convinced of it with every word you say � you re the man to do the job in style � ah � to execute the work as it should be done here was the long wished for at last and it was satisfactory to feel that he had arrived in the most ordinary and commonplace course for no one could look at mr samuel and believe for a moment that he was capable of floating through an by ic the brass bottle upper window he was not in the least that kind of person i shall be happy to do my best said with a calmness that surprised himself could you give me some idea of the amount you are prepared to spend well i m no though i won t say i m a and as i remarked before i prefer comfort to splendour i don t think i should be justified in going beyond � well say sixty thousand sixty thousand exclaimed who had expected about a tenth of that sum oh not more than sixty thousand i see i mean on the house itself explained mr there will bo cottages and so forth and then some of the rooms i should want specially decorated altogether before we are finished it may work out at about a hundred thousand i take it that with such a margin you could � ah � run me up something that in a modest way would take the shine out of � i mean to say anything in the adjoining i certainly think said that for such a sum as that i can undertake that you shall have a home which will satisfy you and he proceeded to put the usual questions as to site soil available building materials the accommodation that would be required and so on you re young sir said mr at the by ic end of the interview but i perceive you are up to all the tricks of the � i should say in the of your profession you would like to run down and look at the ground eh well that s only reasonable and my wife and daughters will want to have their say in the matter � no getting on without pleasing the ladies hey now let me see to morrow s sunday why not come down by the a m to ill have a trap or a and pair or something waiting for you � take you over the ground myself bring you back to lunch with us at court and talk the whole thing thoroughly over then we ll send you up to town in the evening and you can start work the first thing on monday that suit you very well then we ll expect you to morrow with this mr departed leaving as may be imagined absolutely overwhelmed by the suddenness and completeness of his good fortune he was no longer one of the he had work to do and better still work that would interest him give him all the scope and opportunity he could wish for with a who seemed and to whom money was clearly no object he 