Sletherby is a very cautious person. From the beginning he had decided not to be carried away by the ‘stories’ of the young man. He laid the trap for the young man by feigning absolute ignorance about his mom’s looks. He asked him if his mom resembled him. Bertie replied that his mom had dark brown hair like himself. Besides, in his mental eye, Sletherby compared the crest he found in the invitation received from Mrs. Saltpen-Jago “a grey hound” with the young man’s description of the royal crest “demi-lion holding a cross-crosslet in its paw”. The two details contradicted Mr. Sletherby’s knowledge of Mrs. Saltpen-Jago’s royal family. There is something basically inhuman not to be interested in the affairs of a fellow human being “in distress”.
“The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing and hence should be treated with caution.”