She laughed.
“Not quite; but you are not far wrong. I want to cure him of his anti-Semitic mania, and so far I have progressed well. At first I dare not mention the Jewish question to him; but now that I have nursed his child through a serious illness, he is beginning to trust me, and to listen to what I choose to say.”
“But do you really think that you, a mere woman—I had almost said child—can influence Athelstan Moore?” he asked incredulously. “Why, I know of no one in England who is able to do that.”
Patricia was too sensible to be piqued by his scepticism.
“I do think so,” she returned, with enthusiasm. “Mr. Moore is a man who can be led, but not driven. You know what Shakespeare says:
‘What thou wilt
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile,
Than hew to’t with thy sword.’
Mr. Lawson Holmes and his colleagues might talk to him till Doomsday without the slightest effect, because he is strenuously determined to oppose them; but I have the opportunity of approaching him in his tenderest moments—when he is with his child. There are some cases in which a ‘mere woman’ can do more than the strongest man.”
He glanced at her with admiration, not unmixed with wonder.