“Seem well disposed?” “Fair to moderate. Likes you; doesn’t like me. Thinks I’m a coarse brute.” Nick smiled. “Well, you’re not a fairy, Aggett. He’s a delicately nurtured young man, you must remember. Old county family, and God knows what!” “I know about that,” Aggett answered. “I don’t go much by the fruit that grows on the family tree.” “That’s where you are at fault.” “Fault be damned. Then is that what you are at--makin’ the most of the Hartington family connection?” Nick laid down his dividers and turned to face Aggett. “No,” he said. “That particular connection doesn’t happen to be of any use to me.” “Well, what is it then? Look here, Ordith, I’m in with you in all your pretty little schemes--or am I wrong? No? Very good, then. I give you expert engineering advice--and you won’t find a better combination of theory and practice than there is in me. I help you all I can. Probably I get nothing out of it. I’m prepared to risk that. I’ll chance your caring to remember me when you are Ordith and Co. But I want to know right now what you are up to. Why are you bringing in this Sub? What the hell use is he to be? Tell me straight.” “I will tell you straight, although, so far as you are concerned, it’s a side issue. Haven’t you observed that Hartington’s popular with the snotties? Haven’t you seen young Lynwood go into Hartington’s cabin evening after evening?” “I dare say. Well?” “Lynwood’s friend is Fane-Herbert. I foresee that when old Fane-Herbert and his wife and daughter come out East we shall see much of Lynwood, Hartington, and, of course, the son himself. Now Hartington may not appeal too strongly to old Fane-Herbert, but unless I’m much mistaken the women will take to him. He talks well. He may be persuasive and have influence. And I’d rather have him a friend than--the other thing. That’s the long and short of it.” Aggett shot out a glance of suspicion; then covered it with a smile. He felt that even the cautious Ordith was looking uncommonly far ahead. Hartington to Fane-Herbert the snotty; the snotty to the women; the women to Fane-Herbert the father--it was a circuitous approach. He did not know that Ordith was now thinking, not of contracts but of personalities, not of the father but of the daughter. Aggett knew nothing of Margaret. His partnership with Ordith was a business partnership--loose and informal at that. “I suppose you’re right,” he said. “Anyhow, I leave it to you.”