"No, no--I want the way felt. If you see he's going to give in without--without the bribe--of course you say nothing about it till he's consented. That'd be best of all; then there's no bribe really. But if he looks like deciding against us, then you tactfully offer the bribe. You must be feeling his mind all the time, Austin." "And if he has already decided against us?" She looked at me resolutely. "Remind him that it's not as bad as it might be." "Bribe--and bully?" "Yes." She met my eyes for a minute, then turned her head away, with a rather peevish twist of her lips. "This is a pleasant errand to send a respectable man on! Do you want me to go to him at the Manor?" "Yes--the very first thing after breakfast, so as to catch him, if you can, before he has had time to pronounce against us, if that's what he's going to do. A man surely wouldn't do a thing like that before breakfast! You'll go for me, Austin?" "Of course I'll go for you if you want me to." "Then I'll give you your instructions." She gave them to me clearly, concisely, and with complete decision. I heard her in a silence broken only once--then by a low whistle from me. She ended and lay back in her chair, her eyes asking my views. "You're in for another big row if you do this, you know," I remarked to her. "Another row? With whom?" "Why, with Cartmell, to be sure! It's so much more than's necessary." "No, it's not," she declared rather hotly. "It may be more than's necessary for her, or perhaps for Lord Fillingford. It's not more than is necessary for me--nor for Leonard." I shrugged my shoulders. She laughed rather impatiently. "One's friends always want one to be a niggard!" She leaned forward to me, breaking into a coaxing smile, "Remember 'the handsome thing,' dear Austin." I came to her and patted her hand. "I'm with you right through. And, after all, you'll still have a roof over your head." She looked at me with eyes merry, yet foreseeing. "I shan't be in at all a bad position." She laughed. "No harm in that--so long as it doesn't interfere with Margaret?" "No harm in the world. I was only afraid that you'd lost sight of it." Jenny sighed and smiled. "You needn't be afraid of such a complete transformation as that," she said. CHAPTER XXV A FRESH COAT OF PAINT It was all very well to tell me that I must feel Fillingford's mind, but that possession of his had always seemed to me to achieve a high degree of intangibility. His words were not in the habit of disclosing more of it than was necessary for his purpose--without any regard for his interlocutor's--while his face reduced expression to a minimum. For all you got from looking at him, you might pretty nearly as well have talked with your eyes shut. That sudden stroke of surprise and relief at Alison's stood out in my memory as unique--the only real revelation of his feelings which I had seen reflected on his countenance. High demands were being made on me as an amateur diplomatist!