Such deception would sit lightly on my conscience.
"I am thinking," I replied to her, "whether there is anyone, and how I might reach him, if there is." "Surely there's someone who would serve you and whom you could trust ?" she urged.
"Would you trust anyone whom I trust ?" I asked.
"In truth, yes." "And would you take the service if I would ?" "Am I so rich that I can choose ?" she said piteously.
"I have your promise to it ?" "Yes," she answered with no hesitation, nay, with a readiness that made me ashamed of my stratagem.

Yet, as Barbara said, beggars cannot be choosers even in their stratagems, and, if need were, I must hold her to her word.
Now we were at the land and the keel of our boat grated on the shingle.
We disembarked under the shadow of the cliffs at the eastern end of the bay; all was solitude, save for a little house standing some way back from the sea, half-way up the cliff, on a level platform cut in the face of the rock.

It seemed a fisherman's cottage; thence might come breakfast, and for so much our guinea would hold good.

There was a recess in the cliffs, and here I bade Barbara sit and rest herself, sheltered from view on either side, while I went forward to try my luck at the cottage.

She seemed reluctant to be left, but obeyed me, standing and watching while I took my way, which I chose cautiously, keeping myself as much within the shadow as might be.