“Excuse my getting up,” he said, as he shook hands with her. “My sapient boy has put my crutch just out of reach.”
If the words were intended to convey a hint, Mrs Hardy did not choose to take it, for she sat down deliberately between the crutch and its owner. Then, without any attempt at leading up to the subject, she said, with great distinctness—
“I have come to talk to you about your policy, Mr Burgrave.”
The Commissioner stared at her in undisguised astonishment. “Pardon me; but that is a subject I do not discuss with—with outsiders,” he said.
“I only want to lay a few facts before you,” pursued Mrs Hardy unmoved.
“No, no; excuse me. I cannot consent to discuss affairs of state with a lady.”
“I mean you to listen to what I have to say, Mr Burgrave, and I shall stay here until you do.”
“I can’t run away,” said Mr Burgrave, with the best smile he could muster, and a side glance at the crutch; “and when a lady is kind enough to come and talk to me, it would be rude to stop my ears. Perhaps you will be so good as to let me know your views at once, then, that your valuable time may not be wasted?”
“I should like to ask you, first of all, whether you are aware that your confidential report to the Government on the frontier question is common property at Dera Gul? Of course, if you choose to tell your secrets to Bahram Khan and leave Major North in ignorance of them, I have nothing more to say.”
To her great joy, Mrs Hardy perceived that she had made an impression. The Commissioner looked startled and disturbed. “Impossible!” he said. “The report has been seen by no one but my secretary, and the clerks who copied portions of it.”