In the meantime I sent for the gardener, and told him what I was thinking of.

He was one of those stolid Englishmen, who possess resources which don't express themselves outwardly.

Judging by his face, you would have said he was subsiding into a slumber under the infliction of a sermon, instead of listening to a lawyer proposing a stratagem.

When I had done, the man showed the metal he was made of.

In plain English, he put three questions which gave me the highest opinion of his intelligence.