There was - this revealed itself as the interview proceeded - just one slight palliation of his impossible benightedness: he was not the kind of young man who, knowing nothing, huffily protects himself by pretending to know everything.He was of an unreserve concerning his ignorance which his solicitor felt sometimes almost struck one in the face.Now and then it quite made one jump.He was singularly free from any vestige of personal vanity.He was also singularly unready to take offense.To the head of the firm of Palford & Grimby, who was not accustomed to lightness of manner, and inclined to the view that a person who made a joke took rather a liberty with him, his tendency to be jocular, even about himself and the estate of Temple Barholm, was irritating and somewhat disrespectful.Mr.Palford did not easily comprehend jokes of any sort; especially was he annoyed by cryptic phraseology and mammoth exaggeration.For instance, be could not in the least compass Mr.Temple Barholm's meaning when he casually remarked that something or other was "all to the merry"; or again, quite as though he believed that he was using reasonable English figures of speech, "The old fellow thought he was the only pebble on the beach." In using the latter expression he had been referring to the late Mr.Temple Barholm; but what on earth was his connection with the sea-shore and pebbles? When confronted with these baffling absurdities, Mr.Palford either said, "I beg pardon," or stiffened and remained silent.
When Tembarom learned that he was the head of one of the oldest families in England, no aspect of the desirable dignity of his position reached him in the least.
"Well," he remarked, "there's quite a lot of us can go back to Adam and Eve."When he was told that he was lord of the manor of Temple Barholm, he did not know what a manor was.
"What's a manor, and what happens if you're lord of it?" he asked.
He had not heard of William the Conqueror, and did not appear moved to admiration of him, though he owned that he seemed to have "put it over.""Why didn't he make a republic of it while he was about it?" he said.
"But I guess that wasn't his kind.He didn't do all that fighting for his health."His interest was not alone totally dissevered from the events of past centuries; it was as dissevered from those of mere past years.The habits, customs, and points of view of five years before seemed to have been cast into a vast waste-paper basket as wholly unpractical in connection with present experiences.
"A man that's going to keep up with the procession can't waste time thinking about yesterday.What he's got to do is to keep his eye on what's going to happen the week after next," he summed it up.
Rather to Mr.Palford's surprise, he did not speak lightly, but with a sort of inner seriousness.It suggested that he had not arrived at this conclusion without the aid of sharp experience.Now and then one saw a touch of this profound practical perception in him.
It was not to be denied that he was clear-headed enough where purely practical business detail was concerned.He was at first plainly rather stunned by the proportions presented to him, but his questions were direct and of a common-sense order not to be despised.
"I don't know anything about it yet," he said once."It's all Dutch to me.I can't calculate in half-crowns and pounds and half pounds, but I'm going to find out.I've got to."It was extraordinary and annoying to feel that one must explain everything; but this impossible fellow was not an actual fool on all points, and he did not seem to be a weakling.He might learn certain things in time, and at all events one was no further personally responsible for him and his impossibilities than the business concerns of his estate would oblige any legal firm to be.Clients, whether highly desirable or otherwise, were no more than clients.They were not relatives whom one must introduce to one's friends.Thus Mr.
Palford, who was not a specially humane or sympathetic person, mentally decided.He saw no pathos in this raw young man, who would presently find himself floundering unaided in waters utterly unknown to him.There was even a touch of bitter amusement in the solicitor's mind as he glanced toward the future.
He explained with detail the necessity for their immediate departure for the other side of the Atlantic.Certain legal formalities which must at once be attended to demanded their presence in England.
Foreseeing this, on the day when he had finally felt himself secure as to the identity of his client he had taken the liberty of engaging optionally certain state-rooms on the Adriana, sailing the following Wednesday.