tin and I have a
little business to talk over."

Having thus dismissed Margaret (who carried off the precious distressful
letter with her), Jenny led me back into the library, bidding me to go
on smoking if I really must. She sat down, very thoughtful.

"It's delicate," she said. "Of course I'm trying to bribe him, but I
don't want to seem to do it. If I make my offer before he decides, that
looks like bribing. If he decides against us, and we make it
then--bribery still! But in addition to bribery, there'll be the bad
feeling between Amyas and him. No, we must do it before he decides! Only
you'll have to be very diplomatic--very careful how you do it."

"I shall have to be?" I exclaimed fairly startled. "I----!"

"Well, I can't go to him, can I?" she asked. "That really would be too
awkward!" She smiled at the thought of the suggested interview.

"Pens, ink, and paper!" I suggested, waving a hand toward the
writing-table.

"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