to attempt--" Hickle coughed.



"It's just because it's dangerous," began the Lady Mary, and felt

she had made her point of view and Filmer's plain enough.



Conflicting motives struggled for Filmer.



"I feel I ought to go up," he said, regarding the ground. He looked

up and met the Lady Mary's eyes. "I want to go up," he said, and

smiled whitely at her. He turned towards Banghurst. "If I could

just sit down somewhere for a moment out of the crowd and sun--"



Banghurst, at least, was beginning to understand the case. "Come

into my little room in the green pavilion," he said. "It's quite

cool there." He took Filmer by the arm.



Filmer turned his face to the Lady Mary Elkinghorn again. "I shall

be all right in five minutes," he said. "I'm tremendously sorry--"



The Lady Mary Elkinghorn smiled at him. "I couldn't think--" he

said to Hickle, and obeyed the compulsion of Banghurst's pull.



The rest remained watching the two recede.



"He is so fragile," said the Lady Mary.



"He's certainly a highly nervous type," said the Dean, whose weakness

it was to regard the whole world, except married clergymen with

enormous families, as "neurotic."



"Of course," said Hickle, "it isn't absolutely necessary for him

to go up because he has invented--"



"How COULD he avoid it?" asked the Lady Mary, with the faintest

shadow of scorn.



"It's certainly most unfortunate if he's going to be ill now," said

Mrs. Banghurst a little severely.



"He's not going to be ill," said the Lady Mary, and certainly

she had met Filmer's eye.



"YOU'LL be all right," said Banghurst, as they went towards the pavilion.

"All you want is a nip of brandy. It ought to be you, you know.

You'll be--you'd get it rough, you know, if you let another man--"



"Oh, I want to go," said Filmer. "I shall be all right. As a matter

of fact I'm almost inclined NOW--. No! I think I'll have that nip

of brandy first."





<< 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 |