Making a friendly
group with their rivals in the ante-room, they were able to forget the
little fretful man who paced up and down, carefully avoiding Sir
Winterton's eye, but asserting by the obstinate pose of his head and the
fierce pucker on his brow that he had done no more than his duty in
asking a plain answer to a plain question, and that on Sir Winterton's
head, not on his, lay the consequences of evasion.
Presently the group separated. The little heaps of paper on the long
table in the inner room had grown from tens to hundreds; the end was
near. Quisante's agent stood motionless behind the clerks who counted,
Jimmy Benyon looking over his shoulder eagerly. Smiley regarded the
heaps for a moment or two and then walked across to Sir Winterton.
Through the doorway May saw Sir Winterton bend his head, listen, nod,
smile, and turn and whisper to his friends. At the next moment Jimmy
Benyon came to the door, caught her eye, smiled, and nodded
energetically. The presiding officer looked down the row of men counting
to right and left.
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