Cosmo Hamilton

“ Danby laughed again. "Have you ever heard that the word 'save' isn't in the dictionary of the men who earn their living behind the footlights? I've got just enough left to keep me on the road till the end of the summer." ”

“ You've got to wake up, you have. You've got to be brought in from grass and stuck into harness again. Now, no nonsense. I'm the great B. P., I am, for the time being. Now, then, on you come. The blear-eyed major, quick. We'll take the song for sung. Come to the patter!"
Danby's fingers twitched, and already he had flung out his chest and squared his shoulders.
"I—I can't," he said.
"You shall!" said Fanny.
"But—but what about make-up?"
Fanny nearly gave a shout of triumph. It had got as far as make-up. She was winning!
"Make-up!" she scoffed. "A great artiste wants no make-up!" ”

“ Danby caught up his hat, put it on, and took it off again in his best society manner.
"No intrusion," he said. "Just a little al-fresco lunch, nothing more."
The girl smiled. Her teeth were very small and white and regular. "That was my idea," she said. "Not in the way, I hope?"
"Oh, please," replied Danby. "The sight of some one eating may inspire me and give me the much-desired appetite." ”

“ I never meant anything so seriously in my life. Dick Danby and Fanny Ives at ten o'clock nightly. That's what I mean, my dear. You've done it. You've helped a lame dog over a stile. In future, I won't work only for myself. I'll work for you too. Little Dick Danby's on his feet again. Little Dick Danby's believed in. He's come face to face with Miss Fanny Hope Faith Charity Ives, and he won't let her go. ”

“ A merry heart wags all the day. Who wouldn't be happy among the golden corn, in touch with Nature, with the field-bugs gambolling over one's back!"
"Eh?"
Danby laughed.
"You find me a little flowery; I am flying too high for you. I am indulging in aeroplanics. I'll come down to the good red earth. Marnin', matey. How's t'crops?"
The imitation of the country accent was ridiculously exaggerated. The farm-hand examined the town man searchingly and suspiciously.
"Eh?" he said again.
"Beat again!" said Danby, with a shriek of laughter.
Pippard went closer, but slowly. ”

“ Now we're moving. . . . Well, how's the corn? It looks fine and fat."
"Ah," said Pippard, grinning broadly and affectionately.
The little man bowed. He seemed to be saying things which would arouse laughter among an invisible audience.
"Again I thank you. Yes, very fine and fat. You've been punching out and giving them thick ears. What?"
The examination was continued.
"You doan't seem ter be talkin' sense, mister."
Another shriek of laughter disturbed the characteristic peacefulness.
"Congratulations! You've discovered me. How can I talk sense when I'm trying to be sociable? ”

“ Pippard roared. "There you goes agin," he said. "What are yer, mister? A hartist?"
"An artist? Oh, dear no. Oh, God bless me, no! I'm an artiste."
"What's the difference, any'ow?"
If the little man had asked for his cue, he could not have got it more readily. "An artist earns his bread-and-butter by putting paint on canvas, and an artiste gets an occasional dish of tripe and onions by putting paint on his face."
"Ah reckon as 'ow you're an artiste, mister, although Ah can't see no paint on yer face."
"I washed over twelve months ago," said Danby sadly. ”

“ It was altogether too much for the man who rose with the sun and went to bed with the sun and worked out in the fields all day long; the big, simple, healthy, natural man, whose life was a series of seasons, to whom there was no tragedy except bad weather, and a lack of work and wages. ”

“ Good-bye, man who knows nothing, and doesn't want to know anything. I'd give ten years of my life for five of yours any day. Well, well."
He turned with a sigh, took off his hat and hung it on a twig of the hedge, and then divested himself of his knapsack. This he unstrapped, and, taking out a napkin, spread it with a certain neatness on the grass, and set upon it a loaf, a piece of Cheddar cheese, a lettuce, and several slices of ham wrapped in paper, a knife and fork. ”