quite long conversations, which appeared to be satisfactory to
both. The Doctor now reverted to this method; the boy had evidently come
to pay him a visit of ceremony in acknowledgment of several invitations;
he would not probably stay long. So, in answer to Torres' request for
permission to "address" Garda, with reference to an "Alliance," he
replied that on the whole he thought the oranges would be good this
year, though--and here followed a little disquisition on the effects
respectively of wet and dry seasons, to which Torres listened with
gravity unmoved. He then advanced to his second position: he hoped the
Doctor, as guardian, cherished no personal objections to his suit; this
was the courtesy of ceremony on his part, of course; the Doctor
naturally could cherish no objection.

The Doctor replied that he had never cared much for mandarins; for his
own part, he preferred the larger kinds. However, that was a matter of
taste--each one to his own; he believed in letting everybody have what
he liked. And, having the third time pushed a chair in vain towards his
visitor, he waived further ceremony and seated himself; he had already
been kept standing unconscionably long.

Torres, who had understood at least the gesture, responded with
deference, pointing out that to be seated would not accord with his
present position as most humble of suitors for the Doctor's favor.

And then the Doctor responded that, to please his mother, he had planted
a few mandarins after all.

So they went on. The Doctor thought his visitor would never go. From his
comfortable chair he watched him standing in his fixed attitude,
producing his Spanish phrases, one after the other, with grave
regularity, whenever there was a pause. Finally the Doctor, who had a
gleam of fun in him, folded his arms and recited to him two hundred
lines from "The Rape of the Lock," which was one of his favorite poems;
he emphasized the parts which he liked, and even gesticulated a little
as he went on, not hurrying at all, but finishing the whole in round
full tones, with excellent taste and elocution. "There!" he said to
himself; "let us see how he likes that."

But Torres, apparently, liked it as well as anything else; he listened
to the whole without change of expression, and then, after the proper
pause, brought out another of his remarks. The Doctor glanced at the
clock; the visitor had been there over half an hour. "Look here, Torres,
what _is_ it you are