h had carried him to the top. Moreover, he had been
the first public man in the Five Towns to gain a knighthood. The Five
Towns could not deny that it was very proud indeed of this knighthood.
The means by which he had won this distinction were neither here nor
there--he had won it. And was he not the father of his native borough?
Had he not been three times mayor of his native borough? Was not the
whole northern half of the county dotted and spangled by his
benefactions, his institutions, his endowments?

And it could not be denied that he sometimes tickled the Five Towns as
the Five Towns likes being tickled. There was, for example, the
notorious Sneyd incident. Sneyd Hall, belonging to the Earl of Chell,
lies a few miles south of the Five Towns, and from it the pretty
Countess of Chell exercises that condescending meddlesomeness which so
frequently exasperates the Five Towns. Sir Jee had got his title by the
aid of the Countess-'Interfering Iris', as she is locally dubbed.
Shortly afterwards he had contrived to quarrel with the Countess; and
the quarrel was conducted by Sir Jee as a quarrel between equals, which
delighted the district. Sir Jee's final word in it had been to buy a
sizable tract of land near Sneyd village, just off the Sneyd estate,
and to erect thereon a mansion quite as imposing as Sneyd Hall, and far
more up to date, and to call the mansion Sneyd Castle. A mighty stroke!
Iris was furious; the Earl speechless with fury. But they could do
nothing. Naturally the Five Towns was tickled.

It was apropos of the house-warming of Sneyd Castle, also of the
completion of his third mayoralty, and of the inauguration of the Dain
Technical Institute, that the movement had been started (primarily by a
few toadies) for tendering to Sir Jee a popular gift worthy to express
the profound esteem in which he was officially held in the Five Towns.
It having been generally felt that the gift should take the form of a
portrait, a local dilettante had suggested Cressage, and when the Five
Towns had inquired into Cressage and discovered that that genius from
the United States was celebrated throughout the civilized world, and
regarded as the equal of Velazquez (whoever Velazquez might be), and
that he had painted half the aristocracy, and that his income was
regal, the suggestion was accepted and Cressage was approached.

Cressage haughtily consented to paint Sir Jee's portrait on his usual
conditions; namely, that the si