‘Yes, that is just what you would do, you cunning woman! But if he has no family?’
‘I would say what great men editors are!’
‘He would see through you.’
‘Not he!’
‘You don’t understand that what imposes on common folk would never hoodwink an editor.’
‘That’s where you are wrong. Gentle or simple, stupid or clever, the men are all alike in the hands of a woman that flatters them.’
‘Ah, I’m sure there are better ways of getting round an editor than that.’
‘I daresay there are,’ my mother would say with conviction, ‘but if you try that plan you will never need to try another.’
‘How artful you are, mother—you with your soft face! Do you not think shame?’
‘Pooh!’ says my mother brazenly.