"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?"