Street as
any one could have desired.

CHAPTER XXVIII

HOPE SURPRISED

Mrs. Tyrrell and Annabel were lunching with friends somewhere: Mr.
Newthorpe had just taken a solitary meal in the room which he used for
a study. Thither Mrs. Ormonde was conducted.

She noticed that he looked by no means so well as he had done before
leaving Eastbourne. His greeting was nervous. He would not sit down,
preferring to move restlessly from one position to another.

'I was about to write to you,' he said. 'What news do you bring?'

'I have come to you for news.'

'But you have seen Egremont?'

'Neither seen nor heard from him.'

'Then I suppose that settles the matter. I went to his place once, but
could hear nothing of him, and since then I have just waited till the
muddy water should strain itself clear again.'

'But I am in ignorance yet of the state of things in Lambeth,' said
Mrs. Ormonde. 'Do you know anything about the library?'

'Dalmaine keeps our world supplied with the latest information,' Mr.
Newthorpe replied, with cold sarcasm. 'The library scheme, I suppose,
is at an end. The man Grail, we are told, pursues his old occupation.'

Mrs. Ormonde kept silence. The other continued, assuming a tone of
cheerful impartiality:

'Really it is very instructive, an affair of this kind. One knows very
well, theoretically, how average humanity fears and hates a nature
superior to itself; but one has not often an opportunity of seeing it
so well illustrated in practice. Tyrrell's attitude has especially
amused me; his lungs begin to crow like chanticleer as often as the
story comes up for discussion. He has a good deal of personal liking
for Egremont, but to see 'the idealist' in the mud he finds altogether
too delicious. His wife feels exactly in the same way, though she
expresses her feeling differently. And Dalmaine--if I were an
able-bodied man I rather think I should have kicked Dalmaine downstairs
before this. 'Lo you, what comes of lofty priggishness!'--that is his
text, and he enlarges on it in a manner worthy of himself. And the
amazing thing is that it never occurs to these people to explain what
has happened on any but the least charitable hypothesis.'

'What of Annabel?' Mrs. Ormonde asked.

'She seems to have no interest in the matter. So far so good, perhaps.'
He added, with a smile, 'She is revenging herself for her years of
retirement.'

'I supposed so. And really seems to be enjoying herself?