s mind a possible abandonment of the undertaking. He had never
contemplated the sacrifice of his fortune, and though anything of that
kind was still very far off, it was daily more difficult for him to face
with equanimity even moderate losses. Money had fostered ambition, and
ambition full grown had more need than ever of its nurse. New Wanley was
no longer an end in itself, but a stepping-stone You must come to your
own conclusions in judging the value of Mutimer's social zeal; the facts
of his life up to this time are before you, and you will not forget how
complex a matter is the mind of a strong man with whom circumstances
have dealt so strangely. His was assuredly not the vulgar self-seeking
of the gilded _bourgeois_ who covets an after-dinner sleep on
Parliamentary benches. His ignorance of the machinery of government was
profound; though he spoke scornfully of Parliament and its members, he
had no conception of those powers of dulness and respectability which
seize upon the best men if folly lures them within the precincts of St.
Stephen's. He thought, poor fellow! that he could rise in his place and
thunder forth his indignant eloquence as he did in Commonwealth Hall
and elsewhere; he imagined a conscience-stricken House, he dreamed of
passionate debates on a Bill which really had the good of the people
for its sole object. Such Bill would of course bear _his_ name; shall we
condemn him for that?

Adela was at Exmouth, drinking the mild air, wondering whether there was
in truth a life to come, and, if so, whether it was a life wherein Love
and Duty were at one. A year ago such thoughts could not have entered
her mind. But she had spent several weeks in close companionship with
Stella Westlake, and Stella's influence was subtle. Mrs. Westlake had
come here to regain strength after a confinement; the fact drew her near
to Adela, whose time for giving birth to a child was not far off.

Adela at first regarded this friend with much the same feeling of awe
as mingled with Letty's affection for Adela herself. Stella Westlake
was not only possessed of intellectual riches which Adela had had no
opportunity of gaining; her character was so full of imaginative force,
of dreamy splendours, that it addressed itself to a mind like Adela's
with magic irresistible and permanent. No rules of the polite world
applied to Stella; she spoke and acted with an independence so
spontaneous that it did not suggest conscious opposition