'Well, I advised Hatfield to make himself scarce, and I hope he's done it. It's more on behalf of the other men that I'm here.'
'Why, what can I do in the matter?'
'Your word will have great weight with young Ferrier. I want you to go to him and ask him to let the affair rest just where it is,' he said bluntly.
Clare coloured painfully. 'I go to Mr Ferrier?' she repeated. 'Count Litvinoff, you must know that that is quite impossible.'
'I know that it is difficult, Miss Stanley, but I also know that it is not impossible.'
'It is out of the question for me—you ought to know,' she hesitated, 'to ask a favour of him.'
'It would be an unpleasant thing for you to do, and two months ago I would rather have cut my tongue out than have asked you. But I know now—I have had it from your own lips—that you are a convert to our great faith.'
She made a movement as though she would have spoken, but he went on hurriedly:
'You may remember that what impressed you most in my fellow-countryman Petrovitch's address was the self-abnegation which ran all through it. My countryman was right. Self-abnegation is the note of the Revolution! On the first day of this new year you honoured me by asking me what good you could do. I tell you now. You can save many of these men from prison, and their wives from harder fare than the prison's, by humbling your pride and asking what will not be refused. Forgive me if I speak plainly, but it is not for my own sake I would ask you to do anything now. It is for these men, and for the sake of the cause.'