Part 11 (1/2)
”Under the world's eye,” said Alan, but in so low a voice that she was not sure whether he meant her to hear or not. However, they both smiled; and he went on rather hurriedly, ”It is the place of all others where I should expect to meet you. We think so much alike----”
”Do we?” said Lettice doubtfully. ”But we differ very much.”
”Not in essentials. Don't say that you think so,” he said, in a tone that was almost pa.s.sionately earnest? ”I can't tell you how much it is to me to feel that I have a friend who understands--who sympathizes--who _would_ sympathize, I am sure, if she knew all----”
He broke off suddenly, and the emotion in his voice so far touched Lettice that she remained silent, with drooping head and lowered eyes.
”Yes,” he went on, ”you owe me your sympathy now. You have given me so much that you must give me more. I have a right to it.”
”Mr. Walcott!” said Lettice, raising her head quickly, ”you can have no _right_----”
”No right to sympathy from a friend? Well, perhaps not,” he answered bitterly. ”I thought that, although you were a woman, you could allow me the claim I make. It is small enough, G.o.d knows! Miss Campion, forgive me for speaking so roughly. I ask most earnestly for your friends.h.i.+p and your sympathy; will you not give me these?”
Lettice moved onward towards the door. ”Do you think that we ought to discuss our personal concerns in such a place as this?” she asked, evading the question in a thoroughly feminine manner.
”Why not? But if not here, then in another place. By the bye”--with a sudden change of manner, as they stepped into the light of day--”I have a rare book that I want to show you. Will you let me bring it to your house to-morrow morning? I think that you will be interested. May I bring it?”
”Yes,” said Lettice mechanically. The change from fierce earnestness to this subdued conventionality of tone bewildered her a little.
”I will come at twelve, if that hour will suit you?”
”It will suit me very well.”
And then he raised his hat and left her. Lettice, her pulses throbbing strangely, took her way back to Hammersmith. As she grew calmer, she wondered what had agitated her so much; it must have been something in his look or in his tone, for every effort to a.s.sure herself by a repet.i.tion of his words that they were mere commonplaces of conversation set her heart beating more tumultuously than ever. She walked all the way from Westminster to Brook Green without once reflecting that she might save herself that fatigue by hailing a pa.s.sing omnibus.
CHAPTER VIII.
AT THE OLIGARCHY CLUB.
Sydney Campion had done a year's hard and remunerative work since he paid his last visit to Angleford, and the result more than answered his expectations.
When the courts were sitting he was fully absorbed in his briefs; but now and again he took life easily enough--at any rate, so far as the law was concerned. In the autumn it had been his custom to live abroad for a month or two; at Christmas and Easter he invariably found his way to his club in the afternoon, and finished the evening over a rubber of whist.
It was a rare occasion when Sydney was able, in the middle of term, to leave his chambers between three and four o'clock, and stroll in a leisurely way along the Embankment, peacefully smoking a cigar. The chance came to him one sultry day in June. There was no case for him to master, nothing proceeding in which he was specially interested, and he did not feel disposed to sit down and improvise a case for himself, as he used to do in his earlier days. He was minded to be idle; and we may accompany him in his westward walk along the river side to Hungerford Bridge, and up the Avenue to Pall Mall.
On the steps of the Oligarchy Club he found his old friend, Pynsent, just starting for the House. The time was one of great excitement for those who had not lost their interest in the politics of the day. The Irish Land Bill was in Committee, and the Conservatives had strenuously opposed it, fighting, as they knew, a losing battle, yet not without consolations. This very week they had run the Government so close that the transfer of three votes would have put them in a minority; and Sir John Pynsent, who was always a sanguine man, had convinced himself that the Liberal party was on the point of breaking up.
”They are sure to go to pieces,” he said to Campion; ”and it would be a strange thing if they did not. What Heneage has done already some other Whig with a conscience will do again, and more effectually. You will see we shall be back in office before the year is out. No Ministry and no majority could bear the strain which the Old Man is putting on his followers--it is simply impossible. The worth and birth of the country are sick of this veiled communism that they call justice to Ireland--sick of democratic sycophancy--deadly sick of the Old Man. You mark my words, dear boy: there will be a great revolt against him before many months have pa.s.sed. I see it working. I find it in the House, in the clubs, in the drawing-rooms; and I don't speak merely as my wishes lead me.”
”No doubt you are right as to London; but how about the country?”
”The provinces waver more than the metropolis, I admit; but I don't despair of seeing a majority even in the English boroughs. Ah, Campion I never see you without saying to myself, 'There goes the man who lost us Dormer.' You would have won that election, I am certain.”
”Well,” said Sydney, ”you know why I could not fight. The will, the money, everything was ready: but----”
”True, I forgot. I beg your pardon!”
”Not at all! But I will fight for you some day--as soon as you like.