ummed in his brain as he walked about. There were such infinite
varieties of things to do, such a multitude of people doing them. To
some men this reflection brings despair or bewilderment; to Harry (as
indeed Lord Southend would have expected from his observation of him) it
was a titillating evidence of great opportunities, stirring his mind to
a busy consideration of chances. Thus then it seemed as though Blent
might fall into the background, his loved Blent. Perhaps his not
thinking of it had begun in wilfulness, or even in fear; but he found
the rule he had made far easier to keep than he had ever expected. There
had been a sort of release for his mind; he had not foreseen this as a
possible result of his great sacrifice. He even felt rather richer;
which seemed a strange paradox, till he reflected that the owners of
Blent had seldom been able to lay hands readily on a fluid sum of
fifteen thousand pounds, subject to no claims for houses to be repaired,
buildings to be maintained, cottages to be built, wages to be paid, and
the dozen other ways in which money disperses itself over the surface of
a landed estate. He had fifteen thousand pounds in form as good as cash.
He was living more or less as he had once meant to live in this one
particular; he was living with a respectable if not a big check by him,
ready for any emergency which might arise--an emergency not now of a
danger to be warded off, but of an opportunity to be seized.

These new thoughts suited well with the visit which he paid to Lady
Evenswood and gained fresh strength from it. His pride and independence
had made him hesitate about going. Southend, amazed yet half admiring,
had been obliged to plead, reminding him that it was not merely a woman
nor merely a woman of rank who wished to make his acquaintance, but also
a very old woman who had known his mother as a child. He further offered
his own company, so that the interview might assume a less formal
aspect. Harry declined the company but yielded to the plea. He was
announced as Mr Tristram. He had just taken steps to obtain a Royal
License to bear the name. Southend had chuckled again half admiringly
over that.

Although the room was in deep shadow and very still, and the old
white-haired lady the image of peace, for Harry there too the current
ran strong. Though not great, she had known the great; if she had not
done the things, she had seen them done; her talk revealed a
matter-of-course knowle