"That's nothing but just," said Winfield.
"But how are you to get an introduction?" said Sprague. "Old John Castlemaine is very particular as to whom he has at his house, and although I have consented to this business, I'll take no part in it."
"Nor I," said Purvis; "and now I come to think about it, I withdraw from it altogether."
"Except to pay your hundred pounds if I succeed," said Leicester.
"You can't back out from that," remarked Winfield.
"Still, I'll be a party to nothing," he said weakly. "Of course I know it'll end in nothing. Miss Castlemaine is one of the cleverest women I know, and she'll see through everything at a glance."
"Then I'm to have fair play?"
"Oh yes, I shall not interfere with you. There will be no need."
"That is to say, not a whisper of this conversation goes outside this room."
"Of course that is but fair," urged Winfield again.