The chatelaine of Mereside laid the prospectus aside and came abruptly to the point.
"I want you to do it," she said, decisively.
"The devil you do!" Then, with the dry door-hinge chuckle: "It was a waste of good money to put in the ice plant while you're here, Madgie. What's in the wind, now?"
The president chuckled again and tilted to the comfortable angle in the arm-chair.
"Tell me now; you don't need to beat any of the bushes with me, little girl. If you say the word, I'll pinch him for you."
"I didn't say that I wanted him pinched. But I do want you to put him under obligations to you--the heavier the better. His mother and sister have gone out of their way to snub me, and I want to play even."
Grierson wagged his huge head, and this time the chuckle grew to a guffaw.
"I thought maybe that was the game. But it won't work with him; not for a single minute."
"Because he ain't the man to go to his women-folks when he gets into hot water. He'll keep it to himself; and they'll go on bluffing you, same as ever."
Miss Grierson pulled on her gauntlets and made ready to go, leisurely, as befitted her pose.
"That is where you are mistaken," she objected, coolly. "It isn't very often that I can give you a business tip, but this is one of the times when I can. When John Raymer died, he left an undivided half of his estate to his wife, the other half to be shared equally by the two children. At the present moment, every dollar the entire family has is invested in the iron plant. So, you see, I know what I am doing."
Jasper Grierson turned the leaf of a calendar-pad and made a brief memorandum.
"I _savez_: I'll break the three-cornered syndicate for you."
"You will do nothing of the kind," asserted the radiant daughter of men, with serene assurance. "You will let Mr. Raymer get himself into hot water, as you call it, and then, when I say the word, you'll reach in and pull him out."
"Oh, that's the how of it, is it? All right; anything you say goes as it lays. But I'm going to make one condition, this time: you'll have to keep cases on the game yourself, and say when. I can't be bothered keeping the run of your society tea-parties."
"I don't want you to. Don't be late for dinner: we are going to the Rodneys' for the evening."