“Well, how did he take what you said to him? Did he seem as if he 'd enter into the business kindly?”
“You don't suppose that I spoke to him about his family or his fortune, do you? Is it in a chance meeting like this that I could approach a subject full of difficulty and complication? You have rare notions of delicacy and address, Driscoll!”
“God help me! I'm a poor crayture, but somehow I get along for all that, and I 'm generally as far on my road at the end of the day as them that travels with four posters.”
“You'd make a pretty mess of whatever required a light hand and a fine touch, that I can tell you. The question here lies between a peer of the realm with twelve thousand a year, and a retired soldier with eightpence a day pension. It does not demand much thought to see where the balance inclines.”
“You're forgetting one trifling matter. Who has the right to be the peer with the twelve thousand a year?”
“I am not forgetting it; I was going to it when you stopped me. Until we have failed in obtaining our terms from Lord Lackington—”
“Ay, but what are the terms?” broke in Driscoll, eagerly.
“If you interrupt me thus at every moment, I shall never be able to explain my meaning. The terms are for yourself to name; you may write the figures how you please. As for me, I have views that in no way clash with yours. And to resume: until we fail with the Viscount, we have no need of the soldier. All that we have to think of as regards Conway is, that he falls into no hands but our own, that he should never learn anything of his claim, nor be within reach of such information till the hour when we ourselves think fit to make it known to him—”
“He oughtn't to keep company with that daughter of Paul Kellett, then,” broke in Driscoll. “There's not a family history in the kingdom she hasn't by heart.”
“I have thought of that already, and there is some danger of such an occurrence.”