"But, gentlemen, if I had the clever qualities attributed to Mr.Preston, I am sure I could apply those qualities to some more useful, and even more profitable, occupation." "You don't do it bad at all, Preston," observed the lieutenant.

"Only, you see, it don't go down." "I trust," Mr.Pyecroft said good-humoredly, "that it isn't going to be necessary to explain to you that I am not Thomas Preston." "No, that won't be necessary at all," replied the waggish lieutenant.
"Not necessary at all.

For you can't." Mr.Pyecroft raised his eyebrows.
"Gentlemen, you really seem to be taking this matter seriously! Why, you two officers in uniform saw me only last night here with my two sisters, and any one in the neighborhood can tell you my sister Matilda has been housekeeper in this house for twenty years." That tone was most plausible.

The two uniformed policemen looked at their superior dubiously.
"Never you mind what they seen last night," the lieutenant commented dryly.

"And never you mind about Matilda." "But you are forgetting that I am Matilda's brother," said Mr.
Pyecroft.