wanted to ask you? He was ashamed, and lie gave it up; he tried to forget me. But now it 's all on again; only, meanwhile, his mother has been at him. She works at him night and day, like a weasel in a hole, to persuade him that I'm far beneath him. He 's very fond of her, and he 's very open to influence—I mean from his mother, not from any one else. Except me, of course. Oh, I 've influenced him, I 've explained everything fifty times over. But some things are rather complicated, don't you know; and he keeps coming back to them. He wants every little speck explained. He won't come to you himself, but his mother will, or she 'll send some of her people. I guess she 'll send the lawyer—the family solicitor, they call him. She wanted to send him out to America to make inquiries, only she did n't know where to send. Of course I could n't be expected to give the places, they 've got to find them out for themselves. She knows all about you, and she has made the acquaintance of your sister. So you see how much I know. She 's waiting for you; she means to catch you. She has an idea she can fix you—make you say what 'll meet her views. Then she 'll lay it before Sir Arthur. So you 'll be so good as to deny everything."
Littlemore listened to this little address attentively, but the conclusion left him staring. "You don't mean that anything I can say will make a difference?"
"Don't be affected! You know it will as well as I."
