‘You were kind—most kind and generous to me, when you desired that I should stop Philip from going to Mr Shield. You were kind, too, in the calmness with which you accepted my explanation why it was that I could not comply with your request. I am grateful.’
‘Do not speak in this formal way,’ he interrupted—a very unusual breach of manners for him. ‘Tell me what it is you want, and if it is in my power, it shall be done.’
‘It is quite within your power’—she was speaking very slowly—‘but as I understand, you will find the task a most disagreeable one.’
‘That does not matter. Try me.’
‘Your readiness to promise makes me afraid to speak.’
‘That is not fair to me, when you say that the task is quite within my power.’
‘It is, it is; and it has been in my mind for months to ask you to do it.’
‘If it is to serve you, have no hesitation in asking.’
‘It will be a great service to me, because it will add very much to my happiness and to Philip’s. I know—I have been told by yourself and others—that your relations with Mr Shield were of an unpleasant nature.’
As she made an awkward pause, he bowed his head slightly, and the cold expression was beginning to appear on his face again. Her voice was not quite so steady as at first when she continued: