But she might have reminded me--if she'd known--that it
_was_you who persuaded me to give Fleetwood that chance."
Mrs. Mornway turned with a slight heightening of color. "Grace--how
could she possibly have known?"
"She couldn't, of course, unless she'd read my weakness in my face.
But why do you look so startled at my little joke?"
"It's only that I so dislike Grace's ineradicable idea that I am a
wire-puller. Why should she imagine I would help her about Ashford?"
"Oh, Grace has always been a mild and ineffectual conspirator, and
she thinks every other woman is built on the same plan. But you
_did_get Fleetwood's job for him, you know," he repeated with
laughing insistence.
"I had more faith than you in human nature, that's all." She paused
a moment, and then added: "Personally, you know, I have always
rather disliked him."
"Oh, I never doubted your disinterestedness. But you are not going
to turn against your candidate, are you?"
She hesitated. "I am not sure; circumstances alter cases.
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