He could hear that there was a kind of reservation
in his voice; the suspicion that his companion detected
it embarrassed him. He found himself in the position
of fencing with a man to whom all his feelings impelled
him to be perfectly open. He paused, and was awkwardly
conscious of constraint in the silence which ensued.
"You are very kind to put it in that way," said Lord Plowden,
at last. He seemed also to be finding words for his thoughts
with a certain difficulty. He turned his cigar round
in his white fingers meditatively. "I gather that your
success has been complete--as complete as you yourself
could have desired. I congratulate you with all my heart."

"No--don't say my success--say our success," put in Thorpe.

"But, my dear man," the other corrected him, "my interest,
compared with yours, is hardly more than nominal.
I'm a Director, of course, and I'm not displeased
that my few shares should be worth something instead
of nothing, but----"

Thorpe lifted one of his heavy hands. "That isn't my
view of the thing at all. To be frank, I was turning
over in my mind, just awhile ago, before you came in,
some way of arranging all that on a different footing.
If you'll trust it to me, I think you'll find it's
all right."

Something in the form of this remark seemed to restore