Probably it was a work of ingratiation and degrees; a feeling of the silk, a trying on to one leg, then a matching of the fellow with it.
"The Short Works of George Meredith"
George Meredith Last Updated: March 7, 2009
Henry Blaine, seated in his office, read the scare-heads and smiled his slow, inscrutable, illuminating smile-the smile which, without menace or rancor, had struck terror to the hearts of the greatest malefactors of his generation-which, without flattery or ingratiation, had won for him the friendship of the greatest men in the country.
"The Crevice"
William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander
He had prepared himself to be ingratiating; but he realized that ingratiation was not a successful line to pursue with dragons.
"The Heather-Moon"
C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson