Then he read them again and placed the document beneath a paper weight in front of him.
When he leaned across the table, his folded arms formed a semicircle around it.
"This letter, Mr.Coulson," he said, "is not an official communication." "It is not," Mr.Coulson admitted.

"I fancy it occurred to my friend Jones that anything official would be hardly in place and might be easier to evade.

The matter has already cropped up in negotiations between Mr.Harvey and your Cabinet, but so far we are without any definite pronouncement,--at least, that is how my friend Mr.Jones looks at it." Sir Edward smiled.
"The only answer your friend asks for is a verbal one," he remarked.
"A verbal one," Mr.Coulson assented, "delivered to me in the presence of one other person, whose name you will find mentioned in that letter." Sir Edward bowed his head.

When he spoke again, his manner had somehow changed.

It had become at once more official,--a trifle more stilted.
"This is a great subject, Mr.Coulson," he said.