hile she
invested it in lace and embroideries. Honoria thought that he was making
reparation for his sharp words, and so he was, but to himself, and in
another sense. Every time he gave her money in this fashion, Geoffrey
felt like a man who has paid off a debt of honour. She had taunted
him again and again with her poverty--the poverty she said that he had
brought her; for every taunt he would heap upon her all those things in
which her soul delighted. He would glut her with wealth as, in her hour
of victory, Queen Tomyris glutted dead Cyrus with the blood of men.

It was an odd way of taking a revenge, and one that suited Lady Honoria
admirably; but though its victim felt no sting, it gave Geoffrey much
secret relief. Also he was curious; he wished to see if there was
any bottom to such a woman's desire for luxury, if it would not bring
satiety with it. But Lady Honoria was a very bad subject for such an
experiment. She never showed the least sign of being satiated, either
with fine things, with pleasures, or with social delights. They were her
natural element, and he might as soon have expected a fish to weary of
the water, or an eagle of the rushing air.

The winter wore away and the spring came. One day, it was in April,
Geoffrey, who was a moderate Liberal by persuasion, casually announced
at dinner that he was going to stand for Parliament in the Unionist
interest. The representation of one of the few Metropolitan divisions
which had then returned a Home Ruler had fallen vacant. As it chanced he
knew the head Unionist whip very well. They had been friends since they
were lads at school together, and this gentleman, having heard Geoffrey
make a brilliant speech in court, was suddenly struck with the idea that
he was the very man to lead a forlorn hope.

The upshot of it was that Geoffrey was asked if he would stand, and
replied that he must have two days to think it over. What he really
wanted the two days for was to enable him to write to Beatrice and
receive an answer from her. He had an almost superstitious faith in her
judgment, and did not like to act without it. After carefully weighing
the pros and cons, his own view was that he should do well to stand.
Probably he would be defeated, and it might cost him five hundred
pounds. On the other hand it would certainly make his name known as a
politician, and he was now in a fair way to earn so large an income that
he could well afford to risk the money. The