“Don’t you remember me?” He made an impatient gesture, as if to sweep aside a barrier some one had thrust in front of him. “Did I not meet you in Paris?”
“I don’t think—I’m sure—that I have not had the pleasure of meeting you. The Democrat sent me here to see Doctor Stanhope—”
Again he made the sweeping gesture with his powerful arm. “I am Doctor Stanhope,” he said impatiently. Then with earnest directness: “Your manner is an evasion. It is useless, unlike—unexpected in the sort of woman you—you look.”
“You cannot ask me to be bound by your conclusions or wishes when they do not agree with my own,” said Emily, her tone and look taking the edge from her words, as she did not wish to offend him.
“As you will.” He made a gesture of resignation and bowed toward a chair at the corner of his desk. When they were seated, he said, “I am at your service, Miss Bromfield.”
He gave her the information she was seeking, suggested the phases of poverty and relief of poverty that would be best for description and illustration. He called in his secretary and dictated notes of instruction to several men who could help her. He requested them to “give Miss Bromfield all possible facilities, as an especial favour to me. I am deeply interested in the articles she is preparing for the Democrat.”
When the secretary withdrew to write out the letters, he leaned back in his chair and looked at her appealingly. “Shall we be friends?” he asked.
While Emily had been sitting there, so near him, hearing his clear, resolute voice, noting his fascinating mannerisms of strength, gentleness and simplicity, she felt again the charm of power and persuasion that had conquered her when first she saw him. “He makes me feel that he is important, and at the same time that I am important in his eyes,” she thought, analysing her vanity as she yielded to it.
“Friends?” she said aloud with a smile. “That means better opportunities for petty treachery, and the chance to assassinate in a crisis. It’s a serious matter—friendship, don’t you think?”
“Yes,” he replied, humour in his eyes. “And again it may mean an offensive and defensive alliance against the world.”