They think to
shave my locks; show me to the people bound by their red tape. To put it
another way, a rat among the terriers."
Joan laughed. "You don't somehow suggest the rat," she said: "rather
another sort of beast."
"What do you advise me?" he asked. "I haven't decided yet."
They were speaking in whispered tones. Through the open doors they could
see into the other room. Mrs. Phillips, under Airlie's instructions, was
venturing upon a cigarette.
"To accept," she answered. "They won't influence you--the terriers, as
you call them. You are too strong. It is you who will sway them. It
isn't as if you were a mere agitator. Take this opportunity of showing
them that you can build, plan, organize; that you were meant to be a
ruler. You can't succeed without them, as things are. You've got to win
them over. Prove to them that they can trust you."
He sat for a minute tattooing with his fingers on the table, before
speaking.
"It's the frills and flummery part of it that frightens me," he said.
"You wouldn't think that sensitiveness was my weak point.
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