"Quite long enough for your little idyll," he said. "Come, you know what
the end of it must be. We need Mannering! Help us!"

"Not I," she answered, coolly. "You must do without him for the present."

"You are our natural ally," he protested. "We need your help now. You
know very well that with a slip of the tongue I could change the whole
situation."

"Somehow," she said, "I do not think that you are likely to make that
slip."

"Why not?" he protested. "I begin to understand Mannering's firmness now.
You are one of the ropes which hold him to this petty life--to this
philandering amongst the flower-pots. You are one of the ropes I want to
cut. Why not, indeed? I think that I could do it."

"Do you want a bribe?"

"I want Mannering."

"So do I!"

"He can belong to you none the less for belonging to us politically."

"Possibly! But I prefer him here. As a recluse he is adorable. I do not
want him to go through the mill."

"You don't understand his importance to us," Borrowdean declared. "This