The Lady Mary Elkinghorn made things a little more complicated

for him.



How THAT began was a subject of inexhaustible speculation to Hicks.

Probably in the beginning she was just a little "nice" to him

with that impartial partiality of hers, and it may be that to her eyes,

standing out conspicuously as he did ruling his monster in the upper air,

he had a distinction that Hicks was not disposed to find. And somehow

they must have had a moment of sufficient isolation, and the great

Discoverer a moment of sufficient courage for something just

a little personal to be mumbled or blurted. However it began,

there is no doubt that it did begin, and presently became quite

perceptible to a world accustomed to find in the proceedings

of the Lady Mary Elkinghorn a matter of entertainment. It complicated

things, because the state of love in such a virgin mind as Filmer's

would brace his resolution, if not sufficiently, at any rate

considerably towards facing a danger he feared, and hampered him

in such attempts at evasion as would otherwise be natural and congenial.



It remains a matter for speculation just how the Lady Mary felt

for Filmer and just what she thought of him. At thirty-eight one

may have gathered much wisdom and still be not altogether wise,

and the imagination still functions actively enough in creating

glamours and effecting the impossible. He came before her eyes

as a very central man, and that always counts, and he had powers,

unique powers as it seemed, at any rate in the air. The performance

with the model had just a touch of the quality of a potent incantation,

and women have ever displayed an unreasonable disposition to imagine

that when a man has powers he must necessarily have Power. Given

so much, and what was not good in Filmer's manner and appearance

became an added merit. He was modest, he hated display, but given

an occasion where TRUE qualities are needed, then--then one would see!



The late Mrs. Bampton thought it wise to convey to Lady Mary her opinion

that Filmer, all things considered, was rather a "grub." "He's certainly

not a sort of man I have ever met before," said the Lady Mary,

with a quite unruffled serenity. And Mrs. Bampton, after a swift,

imperceptible glance at that serenity, decided that so far as saying

anything to Lady Mary went, she had done as much as could be expected

of her. But she said a great deal to other people.



And at last, without any undue haste or unseemliness, the day

dawned, the great day, when Banghurst had promised his public--

the world in fact--that flying should be finally attained and overcome.

Filmer saw it dawn, watched even in the darkness before it dawned,

watched its stars fade and the grey and pearly pinks give place

at last to the clear blue sky of a sunny, cloudless day. He watched it

from the window of his bedroom in the new-built wing of Banghurst's

Tudor house. And as the stars were overwhelmed and the shapes and

substances of things grew into being out of the amorphous dark,



<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151 | 152 | 153 | 154 | 155 | 156 | 157 | 158 | 159 | 160 | 161 |