"Oh, you did, did you? I hope you told him not to allow anyone to tempt him into trying to defraud the revenue."
Hinton smiled feebly.
"I understood from Mr. Linker," he said, "that he was inclined to consider your lordship's proposal sympathetically."
"He'll have to do a great deal more than consider it. However, if he's got that far I may as well see him."
Linker was a disagreeable little man with a pallid face, almost colourless shifty eyes and damp hands. He received Beth's thanks with many bows, but did not seem much excited by her offer of an advertisement in Lilith's Lispings.
"Very much obliged to your ladyship, I'm sure," was all he said.
He addressed Mary Lambert as "your ladyship" too, being perhaps under the impression that any ladies who associated on good terms with an earl must have titles of their own. He got away from the subject of his own business as soon as Jimmy entered the room, and made his appeal on behalf of the pageant.
He said very much what Hinton had said in the morning, dwelling on the political advantage to Sir Evelyn of being associated with a popular and successful pageant—an advantage not at all obvious to anyone else—and the value to the pageant of Lord Colavon's help, which was, if possible, less obvious still.
"I told Hinton to tell you," said Jimmy, "that I'm not going to touch your pageant. I'm not going to have anything to do with it. I'm not even going to see it."
"Oh, Jimmy," said Mary, "it might be rather fun."