Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/174

160 The girl's eyebrows, in her wondering face, rose to a question. "But if he has meanwhile got the picture?"

"We'll slay him before he gets it!" He revelled in the breadth of his view. "Our own policy must be to organise to that end the inevitable outcry. Organise Bender himself—organise him to scandal." Hugh had already even pity to spare for their victim. "He won't know it from a boom."

Though carried along, however, Lady Grace could still measure. "But that will be only if he wants and decides for the picture."

"We must make him then want and decide for it—decide, that is, for 'ours.' To save it we must work him up—he'll in that case want it so indecently much. Then we shall have to want it more!"

"Well," she anxiously felt it her duty to remind him, "you can take a horse to water!"

"Oh, trust me to make him drink!"

There appeared a note in this that convinced her, "It's you, Mr. Crimble, who are 'splendid'!"

"Well, I shall be—with my jolly wire!"