"Of course I understand that Winton has the refusal of the play, and of course I understand that you will have to consult him. I'm not afraid of Winton. He shall be the leading man, and cast the other parts as he pleases. I'll be Lady Glover, and find the money. I'll be an ideal Lady Glover. I believe in your heart you know it. Winton and I between us will make of the play a monstrous success, and so your fortune will be made, and a few shillings added to my own. I should dearly like to make your fortune, if only for one reason--because you don't like me." "Mrs. Lamb!" "Which is the more odd, because men generally do. Do you remember our first meeting?" "I'm never likely to forget it." "You don't say that in a tone which suggests an unsophisticated compliment. I had read that thing of yours in the _Cornhill_. Frank Staines said that he had the honour of your acquaintance; that you were clever on quite unusual lines--as he put it, 'a cut above the market'--and that in consequence you'd been having a pretty rough time. You recollect that it was at an early stage of our acquaintance that I offered you the post of private secretary." "I wonder if, when you did so, you knew that I'd nearly reached my last shilling?" "I'd an inkling. If you hadn't you'd have said no." This was so literally the truth that he was silent. She understood him so much better than he did her. He had an irritating feeling that she was treating him as if he were some plastic material, which she was gradually fashioning into the shape she desired. "I've done you nothing else than good turns----" "I know it, quite well." "And yet, actually, I believe, on that account, you seem to dislike me more and more." "I do assure you, Mrs. Lamb, that you are wrong. I do hope I'm not the blackguard you seem to imagine." "I am not wrong, Mr. Talfourd--in a matter of that sort I seldom am. And you're not a blackguard; you're altogether the other way. It's a case of Dr. Fell--the reason why you don't like me you cannot tell. It's not your fault at all--it's sort of congenital. Don't worry! But that being so, since I have already done you one or two good turns, it would be delightful to be able to do you a crowning good turn--to make your fortune; to make you the most successful man of the day--you, the only man I ever met who really did, and does, dislike me. "Mrs. Lamb, I--I can't tell you how you make me feel." "I wouldn't try." He did not. She looked at him and smiled, while he stood before her, with flushed cheeks and downcast eyes, like some shamefaced schoolboy. CHAPTER XVI MARGARET IS PUZZLED Miss Dorothy Johnson, balancing herself on the edge of the table, was playing catch-ball with a pair of gloves. "Margaret Wallace, you're one of the sillies!" "Evidently you are not the only person who is of that opinion." "That's right--put the worst construction on everything I say, and think yourself smart."