considering cap

Thank your Lordship: And now I'le put on my considering cap: My Lord, that I am no Courtier, you may guess it By having no sute to you for this mony: For though I want, I want not this, nor shall not, Whilst you want that civility to rank it With those rights we expected; mony grows Sir, And men must gather it, all is not put in one purse.

When he got up to his garret, Mr. Davies locked his door and sat down on the side of his creaking settle-bed, and, in his playful phrase, “put on his considering cap.”

"It's by a church, and the name is Friar, or Pryor, or—" "There's a lot of churches," said the cabman; "and this ain't exactly the weather to stand here while you put on your considering cap, with the water pouring off one's hat enough to blind one."

Michael was always chary of words, and all night they had noticed that what they called his "considering cap" had been well drawn over his brows.

Q. Why should a Mellor put on a "considering cap"?—A.