d.

Trix shook her head.

"Not all, mercifully; but a good many." And then she had returned to her
former charge.

Well, she had ended by bewitching him, and the queer thing was he was
quite glad of the bewitchment. Now and again he pulled himself up with a
jerk and a muttered word or two of irritation; but it was all a pretence,
and he knew it. There was an odd excitement pulsing at his heart; despite
his age and crippled state, he was feeling boyishly, absurdly young. For
the first time for fifteen years he was looking forward to the morrow
with pleasure.

He began to consider his programme. It was entirely simple. First there
was Antony Gray to be interviewed. She had insisted on that. It was due
to him to be given an entire, full, and detailed account of the whole
business, so she had decreed. Nicholas shrugged his shoulders at the
thought. There was just a question in his mind as to how the young man
might regard the matter. Secondly, there was to be a tea-party in the
library, at which Trix, the Duchessa, Miss Tibbutt, Antony, and Doctor
Hilary were to be present. After that--well, events might take their own
course. The villagers get to hear? Let them. Any amount of gossip? Of
course, what did he expect? Anyhow he'd be a benefactor to mankind in
giving poor, dull little Byestry something more interesting to talk about
than the latest baby's first tooth, or the last injustice of Mr. Curtis.
Yes; she meant it. Mr. Curtis was unjust, and the sooner Mr. Danver got
rid of him and put Antony Gray in his place the better it would be for
everyone concerned. And if he wanted a really dramatic moment he had
better have Mr. Curtis up, and inform him that his services were no
longer needed, and introduce him to the new agent at the same time. Trix
only wished she could be present at the interview, but Mr. Danver would
have to describe it to her in the minutest detail.

It is not at all certain that the thought of this interview, suggested
before Trix had wrung the final promise from him, did not go a remarkably
long way towards extracting that promise. The idea appealed to Nicholas.
In the first place there would be the agent's profound amazement at the
fact that Nicholas was not lying, as he had supposed, in the tomb of his
ancestors; in the second place there would be his discomfiture in
realizing that Nicholas had been entirely aware of his own movements, and
the small act of petty spite towards Job Grantley and Anto