Whatsoever the deal was, he would be likely to let it be known in time.
“He’ll get it off his chest if he’s going away to-morrow,” decided Tembarom. “If there’s anything he’s found out, he’ll use it. If it doesn’t pan out as he thinks it will, he’ll just float away to his old lady.”
He gave Palliser every chance, talking to him and encouraging him to talk, even asking him to let him look over the prospectus of the new company and explain details to him, as he was going to explain them to the old lady in Northumberland. He opened up avenues; but for a time Palliser made no attempt to stroll down them. His walk would be a stroll, Tembarom knew, being familiar with his methods. He seemed to be thinking things over before he decided upon the psychological moment at which he would begin, if he began. When a man had a good deal to lose or to win, Tembarom realized that he would be likely to hold back until he felt something like solid ground under him.
After Miss Alicia had left them for the night, perhaps he felt, as a result of thinking the matter over, that he had reached a foothold of a firmness at least somewhat to be depended upon.
“What a change you have made in that poor woman’s life!” he said, walking to the side table and helping himself to a brandy and soda. “What a change!”
“It struck me that a change was needed just about the time I dropped in,” answered his host.
“All the same,” suggested Palliser, tolerantly, “you were immensely generous. She wasn’t entitled to expect it, you know.”
“She didn’t expect anything, not a darned thing,” said Tembarom. “That was what hit me.”
“Do you purpose to provide for the future of all your indigent relatives even to the third and fourth generation, my dear chap?” he inquired.
“I won’t refuse till I’m asked, anyhow,” was the answer.
“Asked!” Palliser repeated. “I’m one of them, you know, and Lady Mallowe is another. There are lots of us, when we come out of our holes. If it’s only a matter of asking, we might all descend on you.”
Tembarom, smiling, wondered whether they hadn’t descended already, and whether the descent had so far been all that they had anticipated.
Palliser strolled down his opened avenue with an incidental air which was entirely creditable to his training of himself. His host acknowledged that much.