atuitous
concession to politeness: "You are perhaps not aware that I am Mrs.
Westmore's lawyer, and one of the executors under her husband's will."

He dropped this negligently, as though conscious of the absurdity of
presenting his credentials to a subordinate; but his manner no longer
incensed Amherst: it merely strengthened his resolve to sink all sense
of affront in the supreme effort of obtaining a hearing.

"With that stuffed canary to advise her," he reflected, "there's no hope
for her unless I can assert myself now"; and the unconscious wording of
his thought expressed his inward sense that Bessy Westmore stood in
greater need of help than her work-people.

Still he hesitated, hardly knowing how to begin. To Mr. Tredegar he was
no more than an underling, without authority to speak in his superior's
absence; and the lack of an official warrant, which he could have
disregarded in appealing to Mrs. Westmore, made it hard for him to find
a good opening in addressing her representative. He saw, too, from Mr.
Tredegar's protracted silence, that the latter counted on the effect of
this embarrassment, and was resolved not to minimize it by giving him a
lead; and this had the effect of increasing his caution.

He looked up and met the lawyer's eye. "Mrs. Westmore," he began, "asked
me to let her know something about the condition of the people at the
mills----"

Mr. Tredegar raised his hand. "Excuse me," he said. "I understood from
Mrs. Westmore that it was you who asked her permission to call this
evening and set forth certain grievances on the part of the operatives."

Amherst reddened. "I did ask her--yes. But I don't in any sense
represent the operatives. I simply wanted to say a word for them."

Mr. Tredegar folded his hands again, and crossed one lean little leg
over the other, bringing into his line of vision the glossy tip of a
patent-leather pump, which he studied for a moment in silence.

"Does Mr. Truscomb know of your intention?" he then enquired.

"No, sir," Amherst answered energetically, glad that he had forced the
lawyer out of his passive tactics. "I am here on my own
responsibility--and in direct opposition to my own interests," he
continued with a slight smile. "I know that my proceeding is quite out
of order, and that I have, personally, everything to lose by it, and in
a larger way probably very little to gain; but I thought Mrs. Westmore's
attention ought to be called to certain conditions