‘I don’t know that I ought to have said so much; for, after all, it remains to be seen whether Lord Danesbury would estimate these gifts of yours as highly as I do. What I think of doing is this: I shall send you over to his Excellency in your capacity as my own private secretary, to explain how unfit I am in my present disabled condition to undertake a journey. I shall tell my lord how useful I have found your services with regard to Ireland, how much you know of the country and the people, and how worthy of trust I have found your information and your opinions; and I shall hint--but only hint, remember--that, for the mission he speaks of, he might possibly do worse than fix upon yourself. As, of course, it rests with him to be like-minded with me or not upon this matter--to take, in fact, his own estimate of Mr. Atlee from his own experiences of him--you are not to know anything whatever of this project till his Excellency thinks proper to open it to you. You understand that?’ ‘Thoroughly.’ ‘Your mission will be to explain--when asked to explain--certain difficulties of Irish life and habits, and if his lordship should direct conversation to topics of the East, to be careful to know nothing of the subject whatever--mind that.’ ‘I shall be careful. I have read the _Arabian Nights_--but that’s all.’ ‘And of that tendency to small joking and weak epigram I would also caution you to beware; they will have no success in the quarter to which you are going, and they will only damage other qualities which you might possibly rely on.’ Atlee bowed a submissive acquiescence. ‘I don’t know that you’ll see Lady Maude Bickerstaffe, his lordship’s niece.’ He stopped as if he had unwittingly uttered an awkwardness, and then added--‘I mean she has not been well, and may not appear while you are at the castle; but if you should--and if, which is not at all likely, but still possible, you should be led to talk of Kilgobbin and the incident that has got into the papers, you must be very guarded in all you say. It is a county family of station and repute. We were there as visitors. The ladies--I don’t know that I ‘d say very much of the ladies.’ ‘Except that they were exceedingly plain in looks, and somewhat _passées_ besides,’ added Atlee gravely. ‘I don’t see why you should say that, sir,’ replied the other stiffly. ‘If you are not bent on compromising me by an indiscretion, I don’t perceive the necessity of involving me in a falsehood.’ ‘You shall be perfectly safe in my hands,’ said Atlee. ‘And that I may be so, say as little about me as you can. I know the injunction has its difficulties, Mr. Atlee, but pray try and observe it.’ The conversation had now arrived at a point in which one angry word more must have produced a rupture between them; and though Atlee took in the whole situation and its consequences at a glance, there was nothing in the easy jauntiness of his manner that gave any clue to a sense of anxiety or discomfort.