"But I must make her understand what I want of her,—in return, you know. I ain't going to give her twenty pounds for nothing."
"You must explain that at first; tell her that you expect her aid, and that she will find you a grateful friend,—a grateful friend, say;—mind you remember that."
"Yes; I'll remember that. I suppose it would be as good a way as any."
"It's the only way, unless you want her to ring for the servant to kick you out of the house. It's as well understood as A B C, among the people who do these things. I should say take jewellery instead of money if she were anything but a Russian spy; but they understand the thing so well, that you may go farther with them than with others."
Archie's admiration for Sophie became still higher as he heard this. "I do like people," said he, "who understand what's what, and no mistake."
"But even with her you must be very careful."
"Oh, yes; that's a matter of course."
"When I was declaring for the last time that she would find me a grateful friend, just at the word grateful, I would put down the four fivers on the table, smoothing them with my hand like that." Then Doodles acted the part, putting a great deal of emphasis on the word grateful, as he went through the smoothing ceremony with two or three sheets of club notepaper. "That's your game, you may be sure. If you put them into her hand she may feel herself obliged to pretend to be angry; but she can't be angry simply because you put your money on her table. Do you see that, old fellow?" Archie declared that he did see it very plainly. "If she does not choose to undertake the job, she'll merely have to tell you that you have left something behind you."
"But there's no fear of that, I suppose?"
"I can't say. Her hands may be full, you know, or she may think you don't go high enough."