angle

Kazuo Ishiguroの短編、NOCTURNEも終わりに近づいてきました。主人公の妻から電話がかかって来ました。事情は込み入っていて、手術を受ける前から二人は別居中でした。　しかも、妻が提案した整形手術の費用は妻が現在付き合っている男性、Prendergastが払う事になっているのです。
We talked a lot of unimportant stuff - what she'd watched on TV, how her friend had stopped by with her baby. Then she said Prendergast was asking for me, and when she said that, there was a noticeable tightening in her voice. And I almost said: 'Hello? Do I detect a note of irritation associated with lover boy's name?' But I didn't. I just said to say hi to him, and she didn't bring him up again. I'd probably imagined it anyway. For all I know, she was just angling for me to say how grateful I was to him.
最後の文に出てきた "angling" ですが、原形の "angle" の意味としては角度に関係する意味と、確か魚を釣る意味があったと思いますが、引用文での意味にはどちらも合わない様なので、辞書を見ます。
・Wiktionary: (informal) (with for) To attempt to subtly persuade someone to offer a desired thing.: He must be angling for a pay rise.
・Dictionary.com: to attempt to get something by sly or artful means; fish: to angle for a compliment.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to present (as a news story) from a particular or prejudiced point of view
・Century Dictionary: To try by artful means to catch or win over a person or thing, or to elicit an opinion: commonly with for.
"angle" には「仕向ける」と言う様な意味もあるのですね。色々な辞書を良く見ると、"angle" に角度を付ける、魚を釣るなどの意味と共通な角度があるのが分かり気がします。