from yourself, sir. It shall be done. I quite understand your wish to keep it exclusive: lends it a catchit, does it not, to the suite? What’s every man’s, it’s been said, is no man’s.’
‘Do you think it would be popular if it were generally obtainable?’ asked Mr. Denton.
‘I ‘ardly think it, sir,’ said Cattell, pensively clasping his beard. ‘I ‘ardly think it. Not popular: it wasn’t popular with the man that cut the block, was it, Mr. ‘Iggins?’
‘Did he find it a difficult job?’
‘He’d no call to do so, sir; but the fact is that the artistic temperament—and our men are artists, sir, every man of them—true artists as much as many that the world styles by that term—it’s apt to take some strange ‘ardly accountable likes or dislikes, and here was an example. The twice or thrice that I went to inspect his progress: language I could understand, for that’s ‘abitual to him, but reel distaste for what I should call a dainty enough thing, I did not, nor am I now able to fathom. It seemed,’ said Mr. Cattell, looking narrowly upon Mr. Denton, ‘as if the man scented something almost Hevil in the design.’
‘Indeed? did he tell you so? I can’t say I see anything sinister in it myself.’
