“I am sorry for the apparent mystery,” Norgate said, as he took the seat to which he was invited.  “I will make up for it by being very brief.  I have come on behalf of a certain individual—­whom we will call, if you please, Mr. X——.  Mr. X——­ has powerful connections in America, associated chiefly with German-Americans.  As you know from your own correspondence with an organisation over there, the situation in Ireland is intensely interesting to them at the present moment.”

“I have gathered that, sir,” Mr. Bullen confessed.  “The help which the Irish and Americans have sent to Dublin has scarcely been of the magnitude which one might have expected, but one is at least assured of their sympathy.”

“It is partly my mission to assure you of something else,” Norgate declared.  “A secret meeting has been held in New York, and a sum of money has been promised, the amount of which would, I think, surprise you.  The conditions attached to this gift, however, are peculiar.  They are inspired by a profound disbelief in the bona fides of England and the honourableness of her intentions so far as regards the administration of the bill when passed.”

Mr. Bullen, who at first had seemed a little puzzled, was now deeply interested.  He drew his chair nearer to his visitor’s.

“What grounds have you, or those whom you represent, for saying that?” he demanded.

“None that I can divulge,” Norgate replied.  “Yet they form the motive of the offer which I am about to make to you.  I am instructed to say that the sum of a million pounds will be paid into your funds on certain guarantees to be given by you.  It is my business here to place these guarantees before you and to report as to your attitude concerning them.”

“One million pounds!” Mr. Bullen murmured, breathlessly.

“There are the conditions,” Norgate reminded him.

“Well?”

“In the first place,” Norgate continued, “the subscribers to this fund, which is by no means exhausted by the sum I mention, demand that you accept no compromise, that at all costs you insist upon the whole bill, and that if it is attempted at the last moment to deprive the Irish people by trickery of the full extent of their liberty, you do not hesitate to encourage your Nationalist party to fight for their freedom.”

Mr. Bullen’s lips were a little parted, but his face was immovable.

“Go on.”

“In the event of your doing so,” Norgate continued, “more money, and arms themselves if you require them, will be available, but the motto of those who have the cause of Ireland entirely at heart is, ‘No compromise!’ They recognise the fact that you are in a difficult position.  They fear that you have allowed yourself to be influenced, to be weakened by pressure so easily brought upon you from high quarters.”

“I understand,” Mr. Bullen remarked.  “Go on.”